VIEW to the U: Office of the V.P., Research (UTM)

An ode to audio and the UTM academic community Creator and current host of VIEW to the U (VTTU) Carla DeMarco is embarking on a secondment with the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students at U of T St. George. VTTU might return in some iteration, as yet TBD. But for now, Carla is hanging up her headphones, and handing back the audio equipment. Please stay tuned and stay subscribed for further updates and episodes. This last recording is just a big love letter from Carla to all the supporters and participants who made the show what it is. Thank you!

Creating more equitable environments in academia On this episode of VIEW to the U, guests are Profs Scott Jess and Lindsay Schoenbohm – Lindsay is a faculty member in UTM's Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, where she has served as its Chair since 2019, and Scott, a former postdoc in Lindsay's lab, is currently a faculty member in the School of the Environment at Washington State University. Over the course of this interview, Scott and Lindsay talk a bit about their field – geosciences and how they got into this particular area of research – but also their motivations for partnering up for a very profound collaboration that they undertook: “A Demographic Survey of Canadian Academic Geosciences.” Their “Demographic Trends in Canadian Academic Geoscience” report was published in 2023. The findings in this report are stark, and, as will be discussed, focus primarily in relation to the state of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – or what's commonly referred to as “EDI” or DEI – in geosciences, however, the statistics, which are not widely available in Canada – one of the reasons Scott spearheaded this research with Lindsay and Emily Heer from the University of Calgary in the first place. Resources - A full transcript of this interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/view-u-transcribed-scott-jess-washington-state-university-and-lindsay-schoenbohm-chemical-physical - Scott, Lindsay, and Emily's report is at Report https://www.geodemographicscananda.com/ - U.S. National Science Foundation report https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23315/report/introduction#overview - Lindsay Schoenbohm's website https://www.lindsay-schoenbohm.com/ - Scott Jess's website https://www.scott-jess.com/ - Dancy and Hodari article “How well-intentioned white male physicists maintain ignorance of inequity and justify inaction” https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-023-00433-8 - Lindsay was also on a previous episode of VIEW to the U in 2018 https://soundcloud.com/user-642323930/lindsay-schoenbohm-earthy-pursuits

Kids, kindness, and community On this episode of VIEW to the U, Tina Malti, a faculty member in the Department of Psychology, and the Director of the Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy – or CCDMP for short - talks about her work at CCDMP, which was established in 2019, and for which she is the Founding Director. But Tina is a world-renowned expert, whose contributions to child mental health and development extends over the past two decades. Prior to the birth of CCDMP, in 2010 she established the Laboratory for Social-Emotional Development and Intervention (SEDI), which seeks to explore the roots and ramifications of kindness and aggression in children. She discusses some of her findings related to children's mental health and also offers a few suggestions for fostering more empathy in people. And, in conjunction with our theme for this season of the podcast, Tina also talks about the benefits of community-engaged scholarship and how it differs from traditional scientific research. She also shares some of the unexpected but extremely valuable outcomes that she's seen in her research over time in working with various communities, as well as what she sees on the horizon for her field. Resources - A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/9YH. - Find out more about Tina Malti's work on her website at https://www.tinamalti.com/. - Go to the CCDMP website for more information https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/ccdmp/.

This is, once again, a VIEW to the U first: it's a Part II continuation of another episode with guests Mary-Rebekah Reyes and her brother Romario, just in time for Halloween to talk about their short horror film Short Drop. It is audio from the chat with them in September 2023, however it contains some spoilers on their film Short Drop. So, if you don't want the plot of the film ruined for you, please stop listening and go and watch the film now: it is available through Liquid Matter Studios' YouTube Channel; link below. We talk a bit more about Trinbagonian folkloric characters and they also divulge some technical and creative insights that make that final shot of the film so iconic. Resources - You can view the short (9-minute) horror film Short Drop through the Liquid Matter Studios' YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdW08LVSkHc. - Listen to both Mary-Rebekah and Romario Reyes on the recent episode of VIEW to the U: https://soundcloud.com/user-642323930/mary-rebekah-reyes-and-romario-reyes. - Also see the article "Family, filmmaking, and folklore" at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/news/family-filmmaking-and-folklore. - Also see the article "Short Drop screening leads to long-lasting contemplation and admiration" at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/news/short-drop-screening-leads-long-lasting-contemplation-and-admiration. - To get in touch with any members of the Short Drop team, their social media handles are the following: Romario Reyes is on Twitter https://twitter.com/Romariojreyes?t=NoI8NiTJma1VZbmOv2KmmA&s=08 and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/romariojosereyes/. Mary-Rebekah Reys is on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/merr.rebeks/ and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-rebekah-reyes-a54003292/. Liquid Matter Studios is on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/liquidmatterstudios/ and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@LiquidMatterStudios.

Community support, love, and art On this episode of VIEW to the U, Mary-Rebekah Reyes and Romario Reyes, a sister and brother team and a truly dynamic duo, talk about Short Drop, a short film they made together – Romario was the writer and director, and Mary-Rebekah produced it. Short Drop has recently made the rounds at film festivals over the past few months – notably the Film and Folklore Festival in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Caribbean Tales International Film Festival in Toronto – and it will be celebrated at a special watch party at UTM on October 25, 2023. Over the course of this interview, Mary-Rebekah and Romario also talk about art and creativity, as well as the ins and outs of working on creative projects with family, and what's on the horizon for them both. They also discuss the long line of artists they stem from, and how family has played a significant part of their community, influencing and contributing to their creative pursuits throughout their lives.

The value of community engagement in academia On this episode of VIEW to the U, Andreas Bendlin, a faculty member in the Department of Historical Studies, and UTM's current Vice-Dean, Academic Experience, touches on his work in Classics & Roman History, with expertise in ancient religion and ancient civilizations, in many areas, but particularly in the Graeco-Roman world. But he provides insight with regards to the two portfolios that he oversees within the Deans' Office at UTM: Academic Integrity, which has many interesting challenges arising right now, as well as Experiential Education, an area in which UTM has particularly thrived over the past few years, providing students with many unique opportunities to gain valuable and practical experience outside of the classroom to better prepare them for future career paths. Resources - A full transcipt of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/9Lg. - Learn more about Professor Bendlin's work from his website at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/people/andreas-bendlin. - Learn more about UTM's Academic Integrity Unit at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/academic-integrity/. - Learn more about UTM's Experiential Education Unit at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/experience/. - The Research Opportunity Program can be found at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/experience/rop. - See all the Lecture Me! events at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/experience/events/lecture-me-series.

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Andreas Hilfinger talks a bit about his work in Chemical & Physical Sciences, but we also get to hear about the work of Professor Meghan Sutherland from Visual Studies. It's a bit of a film review with two brilliant UTM researchers, and we are talking about Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig's Barbie – both undoubtedly THE films of the summer that had so much buzz around them, with a return to theatres in a big event way, And I actually need to sometimes remind myself that I have access to the smartest people around to discuss these kinds of things – in this case pop culture. So, today, as a way to cap off summer and this season, we are going to the movies, and it's a double feature! Resources - For a full transcript of the episode, go to https://uoft.me/9E1 - For more on Professor Hilfinger's work, go to his website at https://www.hilfinger.group/ - For more on Professor Sutherland's work, go to her website at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dvs/people/meghan-sutherland - Prof Hilfinger mentioned the Opinionated History of Mathematics podcast and it can be found at https://intellectualmathematics.com/opinionated-history-of-mathematics/ - Prof Sutherland mentioned Michel Serres the Variations of the Body, https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/variations-on-the-body#:~:text=World%2Drenowned%20philosopher%2C%20Michel%20Serres,clowns%2C%20artisans%2C%20and%20artists., Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut of The Lost Daughter https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9100054/, and the Lying Life of Adults https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12708140/; both the Lost Daughter and Lying Life of Adults are Elena Ferrante adaptations.

In honour of Canadian Multiculturalism Day, which comes around each year on June 27, on VIEW to the U, we are talking about identity that directly correlates to the language that we use. On this episode, featured guest, Professor Ai Taniguchi talks about her work as a linguist in UTM's Department of Language Studies, as well as her art, which animates and illustrates much of her scholarly pursuits. Ai specializes in semantics and pragmatics – for those of us who need a primer, or a refresher, as the case may be - she explains both over the course of this interview. But she also goes into detail about the graphics-based project she spearheaded: L'IMAGE, which stands for Language, Identity, Multiculturalism and Global Empowerment. L'IMAGE is a project that brings the lived experiences of multilingual UofT students, both domestic and international, to life in the form of comics. In our chat, she is also very candid speaking about her recent diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder – ADHD for short. Ai feels that neurodiversity, which basically means a person's brain works differently than someone with a brain and way of learning that is considered “neurotypical,” should be discussed more often and be less stigmatized. She says it is her own neurodiversity that has fed her creativity and fuelled her art and innovative pursuits, like the L'IMAGE project. Resources - A full transcript of this interview is available at https://uoft.me/9qg. - Visit Professor Ai Taniguchi's website at https://www.lingcomics.com/. - Her Twitter handle is https://twitter.com/LinguistAiT. - Her Instagram account is https://www.instagram.com/linguistait/. - For Pan Cooke, the illustrator CD mentioned (who does dating as well as social justice-related comics), go to his instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/thefakepan/?hl=en.

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Nick Rule, UTM's new Vice-Principal, Academic and Dean, and a professor from the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, talks about his research related to social cognition, and how first impressions can persist in colouring our perceptions of people. He is a leading expert on the concept of “gaydar,” among other related areas, such as racial bias, religious ideology, and social behaviour. On this episode, he also discusses the humility that can help drive progress in academia, as well as the “imposter syndrome,” something that Nick has written about in the past, and is also very candid about discussing – both in reconciling his own occasional feelings of being an ‘outsider looking in,' along with the value that having the imposter syndrome can actually bring to our respective ways of being. Resources - For a full transcript of this episode, please see https://uoft.me/9k5. - To find out more about Professor Rule's research, see the Social Perception & Cognition Laboratory at https://rule.psych.utoronto.ca/. - Read the article that accompanies this episode: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/news/rule-school. - To read the article referenced in this episode on "imposter syndrome," see "Common Academic Experiences No One Talks About: Repeated Rejection, Impostor Syndrome, and Burnout," in the journal Perspective on Psychological Science (Volume 15, Issue 3) at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691619898848 (you may need to access via institutional sign-in).

Stewards of Sustainability The Curb the Rain team, who placed first in the Rain It In Competition in 2021, includes Lauren O'Malley, Nandaraye Choi, Borys Brodziuk, and Tina Elliott. The Curb the Rain team were accepted into the Leap Startup League program presented by ICUBE UTM and Sheridan EDGE. They were also finalists in the Early Stage Finalists category among 4 other start-ups, and they successfully won the ‘Sauga Pitch and Showcase presented by ICUBE UTM, Sheridan EDGE and Mississauga Business Enterprise Centre (MBEC) in December 2021. In addition, they were accepted into the Foresight Canada Clean Tech Acceleration Program in January 2022. Their project proposes an innovative, low-impact solution for the outdated storm water management systems that aims to tackle storm water before it - and the subsequent pollutants – get into the sewer systems. The Curb the Rain team suggests a redesign of existing curb infrastructure with permeable concrete that would withstand the impacts of climate change and mitigate its impacts. Hear about their challenges and triumphs in the latest episode of VIEW to the U. Resources - A full transcript of this interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/view-u-transcribed-mscsm-students-imi - Find out more about the MScSM program at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/mscsm/

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Doug VanderLaan from UofT Mississauga's Department of Psychology talks about his work in the Biopsychosocial Investigations of Gender Laboratory – or the BIG lab for short - and this interview highlights Doug's work in gender diversity and gender expression. In the BIG lab, Doug has several lines of research running, including a Neuroimaging Study of Transgender Adolescents and Adults, which investigates brain development and unique brain characteristics among Canadian adolescents who experience gender dysphoria, which is “distress due to an incongruence between birth-assigned and experienced gender.” However, on today's episode we cover some of the other programs of research in the BIG lab, notably Doug's work investigating the variations of gender expression in ongoing cross-cultural studies with collaborators in Thailand and China, and some of the ways in which Thai society is unique in their gender expression, as well as his lab's exploration of potential interventions to decrease mental health risk in youth and broaden children's acceptance of gender diversity, which has the potential for longer lasting acceptance. We also talk about International Transgender Day of Visibility and his outreach to make these particular issues a year-round and continuous focus. March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility: this episode is meant to mark this occasion and hopefully add to the dialogue of social acceptance of people who are transgender. Resources - Doug VanderLaan's website is https://sites.utm.utoronto.ca/biglab/content/home - A full transcript of the interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/view-u-transcribed-doug-vanderlaan-psychology - Read accompanying profile related to Doug's work https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/news/big-lab-broad-aims

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Ajay Rao, an associate professor in the Department of Historical Studies, and UTM's current Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, talks about his work, including the Global Past project, which recently received funding with a University of Toronto Connaught Global Challenge Award, and is an undertaking that unites several UofT researchers as well as international collaborators. Ajay discusses the importance of humanities research, as well as the various initiatives on the horizon and collective efforts to foster a greater sense of community within the graduate studies and postdoctoral community to make UTM a destination for students looking to pursue their master's and doctoral degrees. Resources - For more on Professor Rao's work, see his website at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/people/ajay-k-rao - A full transcript of the interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dean/view-u-transcribed-professor-ajay-rao.

Taking the plunge into podcasting and floundering at university This episode of VIEW to the U features two UofT Mississauga undergraduate students from different disciplines who found common ground in their relation to academic failures – but also successes along the way. Harleen Kundan and Loridee De Villa were able to turn their experiences and discussions into a 12-part podcast series, called Fish Outta Water, to help other students, who are just starting out on their own university journeys, stay afloat.

Have you ever wondered about what all the role of a Dean entails? Well, we have got a guest for that: on this episode of VIEW to the U, UofT Mississauga's current Vice-Principal, Academic and Dean Amrita Daniere fills us in on the joys and the challenges associated with serving in this role at UTM, as well as some of her priorities for the UTM campus. Amrita Daniere also talks about her research related to informal settlements, housing, and urban infrastructure around the world, but particularly in cities of the Global South, with much effort devoted to Southeast Asia. This episode is dedicated to Professor Barbara Murck from UTM's Department of Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, who was an exceptional member of the UTM community and has impacted the campus and UofT immeasurably. She passed away suddenly in October 2022. Resources: Kudoboard for Barbara Murck is at https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/Onj9a3Nf.

The guest on this episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Ruba Kana'an, a historian of Islamic art in the Department of Visual Studies at UofT Mississauga, talks about art and architecture, how it enriches our lives, what we can learn from it, and the stories it tells about people and places. Ruba also talks about her history with the work she has done with museums, particularly her association with the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as part of their leadership and outreach team, and how those associations have informed her research.

A sweeping scholarly smorgasbord On this episode of VIEW to the U, the guest is Zoë Wool, an assistant professor from UTM's Department of Anthropology. Very few researchers cover as much ground in a research program as Zoë does, and over the course of this interview, Zoë talks about this range of work, which spans medical and sociocultural anthropology, and examines the harms of war and toxic burn pits that the US military use around the world, as well as her focus on disability and technology studies, queer theory, and feminist science studies. Zoë also talks about how she got into this area of research in the first place, she imparts some words of advice for other people who are also just starting out at UTM, particularly students, what her strategies are for mitigating stress, and also some interesting little-known facts about her days prior to becoming an academic. Zoë is also the Director of a newly launched feminist research space focused on experimental approaches to studying toxicity, waste and infrastructure across the social sciences and humanities. The TWIG Research Kitchen is based with Zoë in the Anthropology department at UTM, with additional support from UTM's Collaborative Digital Research Space (CDRS) and also the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI). Zoë joined the faculty at UTM in 2020. Resources - Zoë Wool's website for more information about her research https://www.zoewool.com/ - TWIG Research Kitchen https://www.twigresearchkitchen.org/ - For a full transcript, go to https://uoft.me/7wI

This episode of VIEW to the U features Professor Alana Ogata from UTM's Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences. Over the course of this interview, Alana talks about her bioanalytical chemistry research that measures proteins, which are at the root of all biological functions and processes and has relevance for disease diagnostics and treatment. Alana is also particularly interested in investigating biomarkers in relation to women's health. But also, Alana is committed to mentorship and animating equity, diversity, and inclusion in academia by discussing and fostering these considerations with her students and trainees. A full transcript of the episode is available at https://uoft.me/7oA.

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Drs. Katie Harris-Howard, Elizabeth Parke, Dmitry Pichugin, and Vera Velasco from the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research at UofT Mississauga, talk about their roles as Senior Research Associates or SRA. So, what is an SRA? At their core, they are educators and academics in their own right, with established programs of research and expertise in their respective disciplines – in this case, cellular neurobiology, visual culture, biophysics, and plant physiology. And as part of their roles at UTM, they oversee a Core Facility. Find out more on this episode of VIEW to the U. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/7mq.

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Kristen Bos from UTM's Department of Historical Studies talks about her research on Indigenous feminisms, with among other things, considers the past, present, and future of seed beads. These little beads that have been used by Indigenous communities for thousands of years, vary in size but usually measure no more than 5 mm – or for a sense of scale, a bit smaller than a sesame seed – they tell stories, govern lands, and they have even been used as currencies, and on this edition of the podcast, Kristen covers all of this in fine detail, including how seed bead creations can be likened to a virus, how they help frame history, and how seed beads are “a visual reference to colonization,” but also to Indigenous futures. A full transcript of this interview is available at https://uoft.me/7fb. Resources - For more on Professor Bos's work visit her website https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/people/kristen-bos. - Kristen mentioned Indigenous artist Ruth Cuthand's seed bead work: https://www.ruthcuthand.ca/. - Kristen mentioned the article by Professors Eve Tuck and Karyn Recollet: "Introduction to Native Feminist Texts," https://bit.ly/3pTGd90. - Kristen also mentioned the exhibit curated by Lisa Myers: "Beads, they're sewn so tight" https://textilemuseum.ca/event/beads-theyre-sewn-so-tight/. - Kristen mentioned the following books as recommended reading: A Third University is Possible by la paperson https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/a-third-university-is-possible, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/605415/wayward-lives-beautiful-experiments-by-saidiya-hartman/9780393285673, and Theory by Dionne Brand https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/564847/theory-by-dionne-brand/9780735274259. - Lastly, the Reservation Dogs series by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi is the TV show she was enjoying lately. Highly recommend! https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs

To kick off this new season of VIEW to the U, we are picking up where we left off – with representation from UTM's Department of Psychology – but this time around the featured guests are two new faculty members, Professors Anna Kosovicheva and Benjamin Wolfe, co-directors of the Applied Perception and Psychophysics Lab, or APPLY Lab, that was recently established at UTM. Anna and Ben are helping me launch the new season: “Without further ado” is the theme for the year, and throughout this season, I will introduce some of the new people from UTM's vibrant and ever-growing research community. Over the course of this interview, Anna and Ben talk about their research in the APPLY lab, which focuses on how we take in information, particularly visual perception and overall how vision works, and the applications for activities such as driving and reading. We also talk about some of their out-of-the-lab pursuits and the creative ways they spend some of their free time. A full transcript of this interview is at https://uoft.me/77Q Resources: You can learn more about the APPLY lab at https://applylab.org/index.html Also see the companion piece for this podcast at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/news/setting-sights The books and shows both Ben and Anna mentioned they recently enjoyed are the following: The Golden Emperor by Katharine Addison The Witness for the Dead by Katharine Addison This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone The Great British Baking Show The Great Canadian Baking Show

On this episode of VIEW to the U we highlight Professor Keisuke Fukuda, also known as K, who talks about his research related to visual working memory and how memory guides behaviour. But along with that, K also talks about other studies his lab is taking on such as why is it so hard to forget things we would rather not remember and how memory distortion can come into play when we are processing information. K also talks about some of the daily inspirations that motivate his research. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/6FU. Resources - See the Fukuda Lab website for more information on his work https://fukudalab.org/. - Also see the accompanying profile, What the mind remembers, at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/news/what-mind-remembers. - There is also the profile “Total Recall” from 2017 to learn more about his ‘leading’ and ‘reading’ the mind focus https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/research-campus/researcher-profiles/psychology/keisuke-fukuda. - Fukuda also highly recommends the podcast Brain Inspired for an exploration of neuroscience mixed with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at https://braininspired.co/.

This edition of VIEW to the U features Professor Nicole Charles in Women and Gender Studies from UTM's Department of Historical Studies. On this episode she talks about her research related to hesitancy around the human papillomavirus vaccine in Barbados, and why the word “suspicion” resonates so much for her in her work, which intersects across several fields including transnational Black feminist studies, medical anthropology, and science and technology studies. Her forthcoming book Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados (Duke University Press ), is due out later this year in December 2021. Nicole Charles joined the faculty at UTM in 2017. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/6u0. Resources - Nicole Charles's website is at https://www.drnicolecharles.com/. - Her book Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados (Duke University Press, 2021) can be found at https://www.dukeupress.edu/suspicion. - Also read the companion profile to this podcast episode "Lessons we can learn from suspicion in health care" at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/news/lessons-we-can-learn-suspicion-health-care.

On this edition of VIEW to the U, Professor Anna Korteweg from the Department of Sociology at U of T Mississauga talks about the motivations behind her research in immigration integration, policy and practices. She also outlines the work she has done with her long-time collaborator from Humboldt University in Germany, Professor Gökçe Yurdakul. Very much in keeping with this “Adventures in Research” season of the podcast, Anna has a couple of academic anecdotes to share, but she also talks about the influence and importance of stories people tell, as well as the life lessons to be learned from knitting, Her research focuses on the political debates regarding the integration of Muslim immigrants at the intersections of gender, religion, ethnicity and national origin in Western Europe and Canada. She has analyzed debates surrounding the wearing of the headscarf, “honour-based” violence, and Sharia law. Anna joined the faculty at UTM in 2004 and served as the Chair of UTM’s Department of Sociology from 2015-20. A full transcript of this interview is available at https://uoft.me/6pb. Resources - For more about Anna's work, see her website at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/sociology/people/anna-c-korteweg. - In the interview, Anna mentioned Hot Docs as a great place to see some documentaries, https://www.hotdocs.ca/. - She also mentioned the book The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison as a great fantasy-genre read, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910048-the-goblin-emperor.  - Lastly, she mentioned the Yarn Harlot, a blog by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee that is a pleasant diversion about knitting and life lessons, https://www.yarnharlot.ca/.

On this short day’s journey into night – coming just in time for the winter solstice, Professor David Samson is featured on this edition of VIEW to the U, on which he talks about his evolutionary biology research in UTM’s Department of Anthropology. For this season of the podcast, which is a focus on "adventures in research," David shares his stories that vividly illustrate studies are not always conducted in a lab and that researchers are sometimes literally ‘going out on a limb’ for their findings! He also lets us in on the details of the “candlelight challenge,” as well as his top tips for a good night’s sleep, based on his extensive research into understanding sleep, sleep disorders and the health implications of sleep deficiency. David Samson is an Assistant Professor at U of T Mississauga. His work has demonstrated human sleep has a unique evolutionary history distinct from other primates. A true champion of science communication and public outreach, along with agreeing to take part in this podcast, David has been featured on a number of international podcasts, as well as on many media resources – on the radio, in newspapers, and on TV – including CTV News, World News Radio, CBC radio, The New York Times, GQ Magazine, and TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin. He completed his undergraduate studies and PhD at Indiana University in Biological Anthropology. Prior to joining the faculty at UofT, David was a Senior Research Scientist as well as a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University, and a Visiting Professor of Anthropology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He joined the faculty at UTM in 2017. Resources - A full transcript of this interview is available at https://bit.ly/2WBSv6d. - As a book recommendation: David mentioned Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society by Nicholas Christakis, https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/nicholas-a-christakis-md-phd/blueprint/9780316230032/. - The podcast David recommended: Dr. Rhonda Patrick's FoundMyFitness at https://www.foundmyfitness.com/. - The video game he was playing (at the time of this recording in November 2020) is Red Dead Redemption.

On this latest episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Peter Kotanen from the Department of Biology at UofT Mississauga discusses his research and current projects, which have “ecological interactions between plants and their natural enemies,” such as herbivores, insects, and pathogens, at their core. But our chat is also infused with a couple of Peter’s tales from the field, in some of the wilderness in the northern parts of Canada, and for the second time on this podcast, we are privy to polar bear sightings in the Arctic. But he also has his own Gilligan’s Island-type story where he was shipwrecked on an island for days, with no movie star or millionaires in the mix, but at least one professor. We also talk about geese – both the Snow Geese that are part of his research, as well as the Canada Geese that are living large at UofT Mississauga. Peter is a Professor in the Department of Biology at UofT Mississauga and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UofT where he studies the effects of natural enemies on non-native species, and has ventured to northern Ontario, the Arctic and Churchill Manitoba for his work. He joined the faculty at UTM in 1996. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/6eG.

On this episode of VIEW to the U podcast, we continue this season of “Adventures in Research” with Professor Josh Milstein from the Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences at UofT Mississauga and in the Department of Physics at UofT St. George. Josh has a couple of stories to tell about his time in academia, and we also talk about podcasts he’s listening to, books he’s reading, and how the The Big Bang Theory – the TV show, not the actual theory – helped Josh’s mom realize that her son might have a future in science. Prior to coming to UTM, Josh completed his PhD at University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004. He has held a number of prestigious appointments including as a Royal Society Fellow at the University of Oxford from 2004-06, a Sloan-Swartz Research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology from 2006-08, and he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 2008-11. Josh Milstein joined the faculty at UTM/UofT in 2011.

A familiar voice to the podcast because Professor Alex Gillespie was featured on our very first season almost five years ago now, but this time around she’s in an entirely new seat – physically, virtually, spiritedly – and literally all of the above – at the helm as Vice-President UofT and UTM’s newly appointed Principal. The new season of VIEW to the U is “Adventures in research,” with a focus on interesting, scholarly tales, and so Alex is kicking us off with a remarkable discovery in an archive that happened quite early on in her academic career. Over the course of our chat, Alex defines the UTM research landscape, and she also talks about the ever-evolving research environment in the face of COVID and beyond, with a rethinking of how to make research more sustainable and diverse, plus she has some encouraging words about the times ahead of us. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/AG-interview_transcribed%2CSept2020.pdf.

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Historical Studies prof Elspeth Brown, who joined the faculty at UofT Mississauga in 2000, talks about her archival work preserving the stories of people from the LGBTQ community. We also talk about the history of Pride celebrations, timed with Global Pride that is taking place on June 27, how the origin of Pride has parallels with the current racial upheavals happening at this current moment in time, and how Elspeth is rethinking her own approach to research so as to address the structural inequalities that exist within scholarship that further marginalizes people. Elspeth obtained her PhD from Yale University's program in American Studies, and she is the author of Work! A Queer History of Modeling (Duke University Press, 2019) and the award-winning The Corporate Eye: Photography and the Rationalization of American Commercial Culture, 1884-1929 (Johns Hopkins 2005). She is an active volunteer and Vice Co-President of the Board at The ArQuives, Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives, the world’s largest queer and trans community archive.

Métis matters in research and in Canada On this edition of VIEW to the U podcast, Professor Jennifer Adese, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at UofT Mississauga, discusses her Indigenous research. Her research focuses on Indigenous political and cultural representation across several sites. While her earlier work focused on confronting misrepresentations of Indigenous people, her more recent work examines Métis women's political representation and activism. Resources Jennifer's Book recommendations - Chris Andersen, "Métis": Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood https://www.amazon.ca/dp/077482722X/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 - Constance Backhouse, Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 https://utorontopress.com/ca/colour-coded-4 - John Borrows, Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law https://www.amazon.ca/Recovering-Canada-Resurgence-Indigenous-Law/dp/0802085016 - James Daschuk, Clearing the Planes https://uofrpress.ca/Books/C/Clearing-the-Plains - Susan Hill, The Clay we are Made of https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/the-clay-we-are-made-of - Sarah-Jane Mathieu, North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955 https://uncpress.org/book/9780807871669/north-of-the-color-line/ - Renisa Mawani, Colonial Proximites: Crossracial Encounters and Juridical Truths in British Columbia, 1871-1921 https://www.ubcpress.ca/colonial-proximities - Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/policing-black-lives - Sherene Razack (Ed.), Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society https://www.akpress.org/race-space-and-the-law.html - Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus https://www.dukeupress.edu/mohawk-interruptus - Tanya Talaga, Seven Fallen Feathers https://houseofanansi.com/products/seven-fallen-feathers - Jean Teillet, The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation https://www.amazon.ca/North-West-Our-Mother-People-Nation/dp/144345012X - Chelsea Vowel, Indigenous Writes https://www.portageandmainpress.com/product/indigenous-writes/

Considering everyday air contaminants in extraordinary times: On this episode air-pollution scientist Assistant Professor Matthew Adams, who has been on faculty in UTM’s Department of Geography since 2017, talks about his research, which focuses on our exposure to air contaminants in urban environments. He talks about some of the impacts reduced traffic in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Ontario has had on urban environments due to schools and several businesses being shut down. Matthew also talks about the ways in which the current pandemic has shifted some of his lab’s work, and changes he hopes to see in urban behaviour going forward.

Global connectivity in a crisis On this episode of VIEW to the U we hear from Professor Edward Schatz in U of T Mississauga’s Department of Political Science about his research that spans several areas including identity politics, social transformations, and anti-Americanism. He also talks about the ways in which the current pandemic has illuminated some of the issues, like the flaws in our global capitalism and social inequalities that, no matter where you are living, the amplification of these universal problems is undeniable. Ed Schatz is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga and at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He did his undergraduate studies at Yale University, and pursued an MA and PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His book entitled Slow Anti-Americanism is due to come out later in 2020, and he is just embarking on a new collaborative project on China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its impact across Eurasia. Ed joined the Political Science department at UTM in 2005, and served as its Chair from 2012-18. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/5Es. Resources - In the interview Prof Schatz mentions an article, "Productivity and Happiness Under Sustained Disaster Conditions," written by Prof Aisha Ahmad at UTSC that appeared in the April 10 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education and it can be viewed at https://www.chronicle.com/article/ProductivityHappiness/248481.

The value of Art and times of social upheaval In this episode Professor John Paul Ricco from UofT Mississauga’s Department of Visual Studies talks about his art and art history research, and also about how past health crises have shaped art movements. We also talk about some of the ways in which this current pandemic may influence artists now and in creations to come, and what kinds of things John Paul is doing in this time of solitude. John Paul is an art historian and queer theorist whose interdisciplinary research, teaching and writing draws connections between late-twentieth-century and contemporary art and architecture; continental philosophy; and issues of gender and sexuality, bodies and pleasures, pornography and eroticism. He graduated from New York University where he majored in art history and minored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. After a couple of years lecturing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, John Paul went on to complete a PhD in the Theory, Historiography and Criticism of Art History at the University of Chicago. During his doctoral studies at Chicago, Ricco was a Graduate Exchange Scholar in the School of Architecture at Princeton University. As a young scholar in the early-1990s, John Paul contributed to the formation of three newly emerging fields of study: Gay and Lesbian Art History, Visual Culture, and Queer Theory, and he was one of the first scholars to bring questions of space, geography and architecture to bear upon the discourses of queer theory and the politics of AIDS. John Paul joined the Visual Studies department at UTM in 2006. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://uoft.me/5kj. Resources - John Paul's webpage is at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/dvs/john-paul-ricco. - Read a profile based on this interview at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/news/art-time-covid-19. - Read Professor Ricco’s article “Impotentiality and Resistance,”https://www.blackwoodgallery.ca/sduk/tilting/impotentiality-and-resistance, his contribution that appears in Tilting, a publication the Blackwood Gallery recently issued as part of their Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) broadsheet series, launched expressly in response to the pandemic and to support artists. - To read Ricco's contribution to the UofT Press journal Topia, "On Ways of Living in the Midst of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic (Three Brief Meditations)," https://www.utpjournals.press/journals/topia/covid-19-essays/on-ways-of-living-in-the-midst-of-the-covie-19-global-pandemic. - You can view an excerpt of the film Blue by Derek Jarman that John Paul mentions at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jEer2d3nMg. - The recent article John Paul mentions from the New Yorker magazine "A New Doctor Faces the Coronavirus in Queens" is at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/27/a-new-doctor-faces-the-coronavirus-in-queens. - The article by Catherine Malabou "To Quarantine from Quarantine" can be read at https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/to-quarantine-from-quarantine-rousseau-robinson-crusoe-and-i/. - The book John Paul is reading by Anne Dufourmantelle is called In Praise of Risk https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Risk-Anne-Dufourmantelle/dp/0823285448.

In this episode we hear from Professor Beth Coleman, an Associate Professor in UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and in UofT’s Faculty of Information Studies (FIS) about her research in aspects of human narrative and digital data in the engagement of global cities, including aspects of locative media/mobile media and smart cities. We also talk about weeding through all of the COVID-19 information we are bombarded with everyday, and some of the things she’s doing during this time of self-isolation - we might even have a recipe or two to share. Beth has been on faculty at ICCIT and at FIS since 2019. She has curated numerous art exhibits and media installations within North America and in Europe. Resources * Professor Coleman's website https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/iccit/beth-coleman * Detox lentil soup recipe https://pinchofyum.com/the-best-detox-crockpot-lentil-soup/comment-page-2 * Sequestered Black bean with bacon soup recipe - Turmeric root - Ginger root - Garlic clove - 4 cups black beans (soaked) Put up beans & root veg in soup pot medium heat Turn down to simmer and could until tender - Bag frozen corn - Bag frozen spinach - 1/4 kid bacon or other fatty meat (we used lamb bacon) - Diced half onion - Fresh herbs Cook bacon in skillet Remove bacon from pan Sauté onion adding defrosted veg Add veg sauté to soup pot Add bacon Cook low 1hour then let sit for flavor Salt & pepper to taste

In this first sequestered episode, Psychology Professor Samuel Ronfard talks about his research and also about how to best chat with young kids about things like germs, global pandemics, and physical distancing. We also talk about some of the things he’s doing during this time of self-isolation, and how he’s balancing work at home while also having a toddler toddling about. Samuel Ronfard is an Assistant Professor in UTM’s Department of Psychology and the Director of The Childhood Learning and Development Lab. His work explores how children learn about, come to believe in, and come to understand ideas and concepts that defy their everyday experiences and their intuitive theories about how the world works. A full transcript of the interview is available here: https://bit.ly/3a5XyQr. A companion profile to read more about Professor Ronfard is here, https://uoft.me/5i6, and go to the CHiLD Lab website for more details about his research https://www.utmchildlab.com/.

Technological tools for education & connection For this particular episode we focus on: “Why and how are mobile phones and social networks enabling education as it relates to refugees? How is this working in some remote places around the world?” We turn to Professor Negin Dahya from UTM’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology and UofT's Faculty of Information Studies for an answer to these questions, along with some other insights related to her research. Over the course of the interview we cover Negin’s work that considers the cultural and social contexts of digital media production and use through the lens of education and learning with a particular focus on women in refugee camps in Kenya. Negin also talks about how she got into the area of research initially, the potential impact of her work for things like educational design in blended-learning systems, and the importance of International Women’s Day on March 8 but also that feminism is a fight for equality that should be recognized the whole year through.

Immigrant wellbeing and Global Health For this particular episode we focus on: “Although low- and middle-income countries like Ghana, Kenya and Malawi are urbanizing at a rapid pace, why is the spread of non-communicable and infectious diseases still so prevalent?” For this we turn to Professor Vincent Kuuire from UTM’s Department of Geography, along with some other insights related to his research. Over the course of the interview we cover Vincent’s work, which includes a broad range of considerations such as social inequities associated with access to healthcare and immigrant integration dynamics with regards to the healthcare system in Canada, as well as healthcare for older populations and maternal health, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Vincent explains the “double burden” of disease and the “pro-poor” policies that exist in insurance schemes. Vincent also emphasizes the importance of global-health research and collaboration in this area for times, as we have seen recently, during a virus outbreak. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://bit.ly/2uuHjxP.

In this episode, Season 4, Episode 1, we are turning to Professor Norman Farb from U of T Mississauga’s Department of Psychology for an answer to the question, “Why is meditation and mindfulness so important for us, and why is it on so many people’s radar these days? For this particular episode, because it is January, and people may have started off with some intentions for the new year ahead, which statistically speaking, might be starting to wane right about now, our main question, or the “eye on why” tackles these questions and hopefully the talk offers some inspiration about maintaining a meditation and mindfulness practice if you have made it one of your goals for 2020, and it will help to keep you on track. Over the course of the interview we also cover how yoga ties in to meditation, what mindfulness means, how Norman got into this area of research to begin with – spoiler alert, Psychology wasn’t his original academic path – and a bit of a eureka moment he had in the lab in a study related to student’s mental health. A full transcript of the interview is available at https://bit.ly/2USzTiN.

Plugged into robotics research Jessica Burgner-Kahrs is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at U of T Mississauga and in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UofT, and the Director of the Continuum Robotics Laboratory at UTM, a newly established lab. Over the course of this interview Jessica talks about being at the forefront of continuum robotics, what inspires and influences her work in the lab, her global collaborations, and how she got into this field. Her research focuses on continuum robotics and in particular on their design, modeling, planning and control, as well as human-robot interaction. Her fundamental robotics research is driven by applications in minimally invasive surgery and maintenance, repair, and operations. A full transcript of the interview is available: https://uoft.me/52I. _________ Resources Photograph by Maeve Doyle, http://maevedoyle.ca/. Visit Professor Burgner-Kahrs's website for more information on her work: https://mcs.utm.utoronto.ca/crl/.

Reimagining Research & Roots Maria Hupfield is an Assistant Professor cross appointed in the Departments of Visual Studies and English & Drama at UTM. She is UTM’s first Canada Research Chair in Transdisciplinary Indigenous Arts, she is a globally renowned Indigenous performance artist, coming to UTM hot off the heels of nearly a decade based in Brooklyn, New York, making her mark in art circles there, and she also happens to be returning to her alma mater where she completed her own studies in Art and Art History at UTM in 1999. Over the course of this interview on VIEW to the U Maria talks about the power and impact of art, some of the projects she will be undertaking as part of her Canada Research Chair (CRC) designation, how her innovative industrial-felt creations have pioneered a closer connection between craft and art, and how youth have the potential to reinvigorate ideas and perspectives. Prior to coming to UTM, Maria was based in the U.S., where she co-founded Native Art Department International with Jason Lujan. She was an Assistant Professor in Visual Art and Material Practice in the Faculty of Culture and Community at Emily Carr University of Art and Design from 2007-11, and her art exhibitions have been seen throughout Canada and the United States, as well as Venice, Zurich, and Paris. Her areas of expertise include performance practice that references Anishinaabeg oral history and feminist-performance history, Native Feminisms, and she works in a variety of media including sculpture, video and performance. A full transcript of this interview is available at https://uoft.me/4Us. Photograph of Maria Hupfield by Niigaunii Conroy. Resources See Maria Hupfield's website at https://mariahupfield.wordpress.com/. Also this video created for Nordamerika Native Museum's (Zurich, Switzerland) Native Art exhibition https://vimeo.com/113761812.

Dialectical Discourses June 27 is Canadian Multiculturalism Day, so in the spirit of the day, today’s episode of the VIEW to the U podcast features Professor Arsalan Kahnemuyipour to learn more about the linguistics research he undertakes in U of T Mississauga’s Department of Language Studies. With this new, third season of VIEW to the U highlighting UTM’s Global Perspectives, Arsalan outlines some of the ongoing international collaborations he has with linguists around the world. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language Studies at U of T Mississauga and in the Department of Linguistics at University of Toronto St. George campus, where he has been on faculty since 2010. Prior to coming to UTM, Arsalan was an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Syracuse University in the U.S. for six years. His areas of expertise include many facets of linguistics including the syntax of phrases, morphology – or the structure of words – and phonology, the sounds of speech, with a particular focus on Iranian languages. A full transcript of the podcast interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/AK-podcast-transcribed%2CJune27%2C2019_0.pdf. For more on Arsalan's work in linguistics, visit his website at https://arsalank.com/.

Roots to Reconciliation On today’s episode of the VIEW to the U podcast, which has come out in honour of the month of June where we celebrate National Indigenous History Month, with National Indigenous Peoples Day falling on June 21st, 2019. We will learn more about the work of Professor Tracey Galloway from U of T Mississauga’s Department of Anthropology, and the health-focused research she does with northern Indigenous populations in Canada. We find out more about Tracey’s journey from working as a nurse in the urban Intensive Care Unit in a London, Ontario hospital to her current academic path where she looks at social determinants of health and assesses access to nutritious, affordable and culturally relevant foods for Indigenous communities in Canada’s north. With this new, third season of the VIEW to the U highlighting UTM’s Global Perspectives, Tracey discusses her Northern research that takes her to some of the most distant areas of Canada and has led to a shift in the way she defines the term “remote.” Tracey Galloway is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at U of T Mississauga, where he has been on faculty since 2015. Prior to coming to UTM she held a postdoctoral position at UofT’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health from 2008-2010, and was a Research Associate at McGill University’s Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment until 2012. Her research assesses chronic disease risk and ways to promote health through better health policies, and to improve health-care system delivery and services in order to reduce the impact of chronic disease in northern Indigenous populations. A full transcript of this interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/Tracey-Galloway%2Ctranscribed%2CJune2019.pdf. See information on the Water Gathering with the Credit River at http://www.waterallies.com/event/gathering-with-the-credit-river-july-12-14-2019/. See Tracey Galloway's website at https://anthropology.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/tracey-galloway/.

Arctic Anecdotes On this episode of the VIEW to the U podcast, which has come out in honour of Earth Day, April 22, 2019, we will learn more about climate change and its effects on aquatic ecosystems and Indigenous populations with Professor Igor Lehnherr. Igor Lehnherr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at U of T Mississauga, where he has been on faculty since 2014. Prior to coming to UTM he was the W. Garfield Weston postdoctoral fellow in Northern Research in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. His research seeks to understand the impacts of environmental stressors such as contaminants and climate change on aquatic ecosystems, and he focuses primarily on Arctic and Boreal ecoregions. His current projects include studying how the recent accelerated melting of glaciers and lake ice has impacted carbon cycling and mercury bioaccumulation in these northern regions. On this episode of the podcast we get insight on a few other topics that relate to his work, including how he got interested in this area of research in the first place, the importance of experiential education and connecting with the natural environment, and what it’s like being up in the Arctic from someone who has visited there many times over the last 15 years. With this new, third season of the VIEW to the U highlighting UTM’s Global Perspectives, Igor discusses his Northern research, and though he has seen dramatic changes to the stunning Lake Hazen landscape where he conducts a good portion of his work – spoiler alert – the picture isn’t all doom and gloom! A full transcript of the podcast interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/IL-transcribed%2CApril2019.pdf. Resources Prof Lehnherr's website: https://igorlehnherr.weebly.com/

Mothers and migration On this edition of the VIEW to the U podcast we are hearing from Professor Neda Maghbouleh, who may sound a bit familiar because she was featured last year on the podcast during our Women in Academia season. And, in the spirit of International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8, the interview with Neda is reposted because some of her research has focused on a project that specifically looks at the stress Syrian newcomer mothers face in settling in a new land. Also with this new, third season of the VIEW to the U highlighting UTM’s "Global Perspectives," Neda discusses her research, which largely stems from her passion for Sociology, but also outlines the inspiration for her book, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian-Americans & the Everyday Politics of Race, that was inspired, in part, by her own experience of crossing the border at Niagara Falls when she came to Canada from the US to start her academic appointment at U of T in 2013. A full transcript of the podcast interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/NM-transcribed%2CMarch2019.pdf.

Destination: Africa On today’s episode of the VIEW to the U podcast we are talking mapping borders and territories and its impact on identities in Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with Professor Julie MacArthur, an Assistant Professor in UofT Mississauga's Department of Historical Studies and cross appointed in the Department of History in the Faculty of Arts & Science on the U of T St. George campus. She is also a Fellow with the Jackman Humanities Institute at UofT. We cover a range of other topics that relate to Julie's work, such as aesthetic education and African cinema, as well as a special event she is participating in with Masai Ujiri, president of the Toronto Raptors, in relation to Black History Month as it draws to a close for 2019. With this new, third season of the VIEW to the U highlighting UTM’s Global Perspectives, Julie will discuss her research, which focuses on the role of geographic borders and local practices of space, representation and memory shaping constructions of community, power, and dissent in modern Africa. In her research she has investigated electoral politics, linguistic history, and the making of political communities. Her first book, Cartography and the Political Imagination in Colonial Kenya, published in 2016, explores mapping and dissenting politics in Kenya. In 2017, she edited and served as primary author on the book Dedan Kimathi on Trial: Colonial Justice and Popular Memory in Kenya’s Mau Mau Rebellion. Her new research project, “Radical Cartographies,” investigates the alternative mappings of decolonization, sovereignty, and citizenship across eastern Africa from 1950-1976. In addition, her work in African representation extends to the field of African cinema, where Julie has worked as both a curator and an academic. Her project, “African Cinema and the Historical Imagination,” explores the ways in which Africans tell their stories through the technology of film. She has also worked as a programming associate with the Toronto International Film Festival and Film Africa in London, as well as serving as the Director of the Cambridge African Film Festival for several years. Julie regularly curates film programmes and participates in film forums and festivals around the world. A full transcript of the podcast interview is available: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/Julie%20MacArthur-transcribed%2CFeb2019.pdf.

Kajri Jain is an Associate Professor of Indian Visual Culture and Contemporary Art in the Department of Visual Studies at U of T Mississauga and in the Department of Art at UofT St. George, with a cross-appointment at the Institute for Cinema Studies and in the Centre for South Asian Studies. She is interested in how the values associated with images arise not only from what you see in the visual representation, but also from the production, circulation and deployments of images as material objects. She initially trained as a graphic designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, but has been on faculty at UofT since 2007. On this episode of the podcast we are talking art, art history, and the importance of Art and imagination in research, but also in today’s world with Professor Kajri Jain from UTM’s Department of Visual Studies. On this episode of the podcast Kajri talks about art, art history, and the importance of Art and imagination in research, but also in today’s world. A full transcript of the podcast interview is available: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/KJ-transcribed%2CDec2018.pdf.

On this edition of the podcast, Professor Tracy Rogers plots her research path that has led to her place as forensic anthropologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga and as a consultant with the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service. She discusses her broad program of research that touches on several areas, including identifying skeletal remains, analyzing bone composition, and investigating skeletal health. Tracy Rogers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, and the Director of the Forensic Science Program at UTM. Her research examines methods of estimating the age-at-death of an individual based on the skeleton, skeletal-sex determination, skeletal techniques for determining the ancestry of the deceased, and the identification of unidentified human remains. Based on her research expertise she has been actively involved in case work since 1998, and has provided testimony for several high profile cases in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. With this second season of the podcast focused on Women in Academia, Tracy also talks about why forensic science is a particular draw for women and the importance of science outreach. A full transcribed version of the interview is available at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/TR-transcribed%2COct.2018.pdf.

On this edition of the podcast, Professor Jennifer Stellar from the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga discusses her program of research that touches on several areas, including how individuals and social groups thrive. Her lab particularly focuses on the ways in which various positive emotions, such as compassion, awe, empathy, and gratitude, can improve an individual’s physical health, well-being and enhance relationships, as well as encourage morality and prosocial behaviours. A transcribed version of the interview is available here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/JS-transcribed%2CSept.2018.pdf. Read more about her work on her website, https://jenniferstellar.com/, or see the TEDMED talk Prof. Stellar gave, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU0QOKIPU9o, as well as read a profile of her work here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/putting-stock-awe-utm-researcher-link-between-positive-emotions-and-physical-health.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming – Women in Academia – to bring you this special edition of VIEW to the U that features Kent Moore, a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences at UofT Mississauga (UTM), and as of July 1, 2018 is UTM’s Vice-Principal, Research, appointed for a three-year term. On this episode, Kent talks about his research, which investigates climate change, using theoretical, computational, and observational techniques to understand the dynamics of the climate system, and he also studies the impact that weather has on human physiology and performance. He talks about how he got into this field of study, and also what he hopes to accomplish as UTM's new Vice-Principal, Research. A transcribed version of the interview is available: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/KM-transcribed%2CJuly2018.pdf.

The guests on this edition of VIEW to the U are University of Toronto Mississauga Professors Neda Maghbouleh and Jasmine Rault. Neda and Jasmine define and explore their particular studies, covering topics such as race, immigration, ethics, place, sexuality, archives and digital humanities. Today we go beyond limits – not just of race and gender, but also moving past some traditional models of how research is realized or conducted, and perhaps “beyond the limits of imagination,” which comes up in the conversation. We are also expanding into two different departments – with the Department of Sociology represented by both profs, as well as the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology where one of them also holds an appointment. A full transcript of the interview is available at http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/NM-JR-transcribed%2CJuly2018.pdf.

On this episode, Professor Lindsay Schoenbohm talks about her work that uses the landscape to read tectonics, with tectonics being the process that affect the properties and the structure of the Earth’s crust and its evolution over time. We also cover some of the faraway locales she has travelled to in order to conduct her fieldwork – venturing most commonly to ‘seismically active parts of the world,’ where earthquakes can occur – as well as some of the more exciting and memorable trips that have occurred over the course of her academic career. With this second season of the podcast focused on Women in Academia, Lindsay also discusses the associated challenges and frustrations for women in the work environment but she sees hope on the horizon with the open dialogue and debates that have been sparked over the past year or so. Lindsay is an Associate Professor and an Associate Chair in the Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research explores Tectonic Geomorphology, which is the study of the surface of the earth and the forces that are involved in shaping it – both the constructive agents that build features like mountains and continents, but also the destructive elements like erosion caused by rivers, landslides and glaciers. A full transcript of the interview is available at http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/LS-transcribed%2CMay2018.pdf. Resources See Lindsay's website at http://www.lindsay-schoenbohm.com/ for more information on her research, as well as some great videos with her and her team in the field.

Trees are part of our everyday landscape, even in a big city like Toronto, but sometimes we pass by these plants in the urban forest without giving them much thought. They are, however, of significant interest for this guest on VIEW to the U, Professor Tenley Conway, and have been a preoccupation of hers for the last few years. On this episode, Tenley talks her work examining how human-environmental interactions impact the urban forests in cities and suburbs, and the diverse group of actors or the residents that end up shaping what she refers to as our “urban ecosystem.” We also touch on the benefits of trees, but also some of the “disservices” of trees when they cause issues or become problematic for residents. A full transcript of the interview is available at http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/sites/files/vp-research/public/shared/TC-transcribed%2CApril2018.pdf.