Martyn Wendell Jones / en Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to Թϱ students /news/olivier-latry-organist-notre-dame-perform-st-basil-s-church-and-give-master-class-u-t-students <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to Թϱ students</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/48672181537_7530b39e5c_o.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=el3ah-QD 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/48672181537_7530b39e5c_o.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jpyBK5-r 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/48672181537_7530b39e5c_o.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=G2UCTymt 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/48672181537_7530b39e5c_o.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=el3ah-QD" alt="Orgnaist Olivier Latry sits at an organ"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-11-18T09:50:11-05:00" title="Monday, November 18, 2019 - 09:50" class="datetime">Mon, 11/18/2019 - 09:50</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Olivier Latry, the titular organist at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris since 1985, will perform a concert Friday in honour of the 100th anniversary of the installation of the organ at St. Basil's Church (photo by Ansgar Klostermann/RMF via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/martyn-wendell-jones" hreflang="en">Martyn Wendell Jones</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-music" hreflang="en">Faculty of Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/france" hreflang="en">France</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-st-michael-s-college" hreflang="en">University of St. Michael's College</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>After fire destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this year, Paris and the world were relieved to discover that the landmark’s 19<sup>th</sup>-century Cavaillé-Coll organ – one of the most powerful and moving organs in the world&nbsp;– had survived the blaze.</p> <p>Now, seven months after the fire on April 15, one of the few people in the world to play&nbsp;regularly&nbsp;the Notre Dame organ will be performing at the University of St. Michael’s College. Olivier Latry, the titular organist at Notre Dame since 1985, will visit St. Basil’s Church to play in honour of the 100<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;anniversary of the installation of the church’s organ.</p> <p>Latry will also be giving a master class to students from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music a few hours before the sold-out Friday event, which is co-sponsored by the Royal Canadian College of Organists.</p> <p>“I’m very honoured to be chosen to come for the 100-year anniversary,” Latry says, noting that Notre Dame’s organ will inevitably influence his performance in St. Basil’s.</p> <p>“I’ve spent two-thirds of my life at Notre Dame,” says Latry, whose January album recorded in the iconic church was the last recording made on the Notre Dame organ before the fire.</p> <p>“I’m always thinking about the organ&nbsp;and, when I’m somewhere else, I try to reconstruct the sound that I have in Notre Dame on the organ that I will play.”</p> <p>The Casavant Frères organ Latry will play at&nbsp;St. Basil’s was first installed in 1919. The instrument is one of the few organs in Toronto to be built according to the ideals of the French Symphonic style, which also characterizes the organ at Notre Dame.</p> <p>“St. Michael’s is thrilled to celebrate the 100<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;anniversary of the installation of the organ at St. Basil’s, which has been at the heart of our campus community since we opened our doors on Clover Hill in 1856,” says St. Michael’s President <strong>David Sylvester</strong>.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/IMG_3040.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>The organ at St. Basil’s Church&nbsp;at the University of St. Michael’s College (photo courtesy of&nbsp;University of St. Michael’s College)</em></p> <p>Since its installation, the St. Basil’s organ has provided an accompaniment to some of the most important moments in academic and liturgical life for the St. Michael’s community, including convocation and invocation masses, presidential installations, weddings, funerals – and, of course, the regular weekday and Sunday mass.</p> <p>“The instrument Olivier Latry will play marries the academic and liturgical sides of our community. We look forward to welcoming members of our larger university and city community to enjoy Latry’s performance on Nov. 22, a day on which the church celebrates the Feast Day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music,” Sylvester says.</p> <p>Rev. Morgan Rice, the church’s current pastor, says St. Basil’s is “an enormously important part of not just the spiritual life of St. Michael’s, but also the community life of St. Michael’s.”</p> <p>Students can often be found at the church gathering for events or volunteering with social outreach programs such as Out of the Cold, which provides food and hospitality to members of the homeless population in Toronto.</p> <p>The longest continuously operating building on the Թϱ campus, St. Basil’s Collegiate Church first opened its doors in 1856, the day before the opening of the St. Michael’s campus at Clover Hill, its current location. The parish has been administered since its founding by the Basilian Fathers, the same teaching order that helped to found St. Michael’s.</p> <p>In addition to their presence in college classrooms as professors, the Basilians have remained a central presence at St. Michael’s through their work at the church, providing another point of connection with staff, faculty and students. “I hope that Basilian presence on campus through our ministry at St. Basil’s will continue for many years to come,”&nbsp;Rice says.</p> <p>Latry’s Nov. 22&nbsp;performance will follow a special interview with <strong>John Paul Farahat</strong>, director of music and principal organist at St. Basil’s.&nbsp;Farahat, who has performed on the Notre Dame organ himself, directed a rebuild in 2017 of the St. Basil’s organ by Casavant Frères and the Alan Jackson Company. The rebuild involved lowering a section of the façade enough to allow the rose window on the south side of the church to be visible from the floor.</p> <p>Farahat had two goals for the rebuild of the St. Basil’s organ: “First, to create an instrument for worship and prayer that was viable for the next generation, and second, to make an instrument well suited to French repertoire.”</p> <p>The lowering of the organ’s façade was intended to create “a visual component to that [beautiful sound],”&nbsp;Farahat says, adding that a&nbsp;priority during the rebuild was creating “an exceptional teaching instrument for organ students in general.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Farahat says the organ has become a resource to Թϱ students studying organ performance, as well as professors and music directors who come from all over the city to play the instrument.</p> <p>While Latry is chiefly known as a principal organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral, he is also a professor of organ at Conservatoire de Paris. As such, his visit to St. Michael’s will incorporate both his liturgical and educational roles.</p> <p>In addition to his evening concert at St. Basil’s, Latry will provide high-level personalized instruction to four students from Թϱ’s Faculty of Music, who will have an opportunity to join him in the organ loft Friday morning for a two-hour master class.</p> <p>Faculty of Music Associate Professor <strong>Kevin Komisaruk</strong> says the master class will give these students “a rare chance to experience customized instruction from one of the world’s most experienced and accomplished professionals.</p> <p>“Latry is a world celebrity among organists,”&nbsp;says Komisaruk, who has also been an organist at St. Basil’s.&nbsp;“It is always a transformative thrill for students who get a chance to see themselves in their role models.</p> <p>“We are deeply grateful that St. Basil’s has consistently shown such grace and openness in supporting the pedagogic development of our students by allowing them to practise, study&nbsp;and perform at this historic instrument.”</p> <p>One of the students in Latry’s master class is&nbsp;<strong>Stefani Bedin</strong>, an associate organist at the church who is also pursuing a doctor of musical arts in performance degree.</p> <p>“Olivier Latry is one of the custodians of the esteemed French organ tradition, so I particularly look forward to hearing his comments on the French organ repertoire,” Bedin says. “It is wonderful that the collaboration between St. Basil’s, the University of St. Michael’s College&nbsp;and the wider community has made this truly exceptional event possible.”</p> <p>Latry’s repertoire for the concert will include both sacred and concert pieces meant to showcase the organ’s French symphonic qualities, but the technical virtuosity is an expression of a simple desire.</p> <p>“It’s nice to share my passion,” Latry says. “You are always touched by the sound of the organ. You will always find something which touches you. I think that related to the music which was composed for the instrument, there is a lot to discover and there’s a lot also to enjoy.”</p> <p>More than anything else, that enjoyment is what he hopes to provide during his St. Basil’s performance.</p> <p>“I would say to the people: Just come and listen and enjoy.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:50:11 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 160724 at New Թϱ course to examine #MeToo and the media /news/new-u-t-course-examine-metoo-and-media <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">New Թϱ course to examine #MeToo and the media </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-929062248.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a-aBI3DP 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-929062248.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=c_cwFUGu 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-929062248.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=P0pvQyYb 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-929062248.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a-aBI3DP" alt="South Korean demonstrators hold banners during a rally to mark International Women's Day"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-08-12T13:01:30-04:00" title="Monday, August 12, 2019 - 13:01" class="datetime">Mon, 08/12/2019 - 13:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">South Korean demonstrators hold banners during a rally to mark International Women's Day 2018 as part of the country's #MeToo movement in Seoul (photo by Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images )</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/martyn-wendell-jones" hreflang="en">Martyn Wendell Jones</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/metoo-0" hreflang="en">#MeToo</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-st-michael-s-college" hreflang="en">University of St. Michael's College</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In 2017, major media exposés of predatory sexual behaviour by powerful figures unleashed&nbsp;#MeToo, a hashtag now tweeted and shared more than 20 million times.</p> <p>Using the hashtag, people all over the world began to share stories of their own experiences of abuse at the hands of people whose wealth and power had protected them from justice, and this public reckoning led to a major – and ongoing – cultural shift.</p> <p>Now, two years after the publication of the reporting that launched #MeToo, two journalists who continue to advance and shape the public conversation around the issue in Canada are bringing their expertise into the classroom at the University of Toronto.</p> <p>Beginning Sept. 5, Jessica Johnson, executive editor and creative director of&nbsp;<em>The Walrus </em>magazine, and&nbsp;Anne Kingston, senior writer and columnist for&nbsp;<em>Maclean’s</em>, will be co-teaching “#MeToo and the Media,” a course at the University of St. Michael's College designed to help students develop an analytic understanding of the social movement as it continues to evolve.</p> <p>Kingston and Johnson plan to contextualize #MeToo in a larger media ecosystem. “This will be a class that looks at the way #MeToo informed the media, and also, about the way the media coverage of the movement has fuelled broader conversation in society,” says Johnson.</p> <p>“This is a new class – new at St. Michael’s College, but also, we aren’t aware of any other one exactly like it anywhere,” she says. “Some of the themes of the public conversation surrounding #MeToo – privilege, the nature of consent, the workplace, dating, contemporary constructions of gender – are matters of ongoing concern to Թϱ students, which creates an opportunity for a special kind of dialogue in the classroom.”</p> <p>Over the course of the semester, lectures, readings, social media investigation, videos, and guest speakers will examine #MeToo’s far-reaching consequences (and controversies), including the cultural biases, systemic inequities and endemic violence that #MeToo coverage exposed.</p> <p>Kingston, who covered the trials of&nbsp;Jian Ghomeshi&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bill Cosby&nbsp;and has done&nbsp;extensive reporting&nbsp;on #MeToo, acknowledges that the ongoing, dynamic nature of #MeToo creates unique challenges for the course, but sees the&nbsp;Book and Media Studies program as an ideal framework.</p> <p>“St. Michael’s well-received&nbsp;‘Trump and the Media’&nbsp;course led the way in showing how an academic institution can instruct while interacting with real-time news,” says Kingston. And as former New York Times editor Sam Tanenhaus did with his class on Trump last fall, Kingston and Johnson will regularly incorporate breaking news into their curriculum.</p> <p>Kingston points to the upcoming trial of Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard as one possible example.</p> <p>“Book and Media Studies is a program that allows students to engage with some of the most pressing and complex situations created by our intensely mediated moment, and place them in contexts beyond 140 characters,” St. Michael’s Principal and Vice-President <strong>Randy Boyagoda </strong>says.</p> <p>“A course like #MeToo and the Media, taught by two distinguished visiting professors, each a leading figure in contemporary Canadian media, makes it possible for students to explore one of the most vexed, active, and important situations in contemporary media, politics, and culture.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 12 Aug 2019 17:01:30 +0000 noreen.rasbach 157526 at Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at Թϱ builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy /news/media-ethics-fake-news-era-conference-u-t-builds-marshall-mcluhan-s-legacy <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at Թϱ builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/St.-Michael%27s-college-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=haInnWVI 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/St.-Michael%27s-college-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=AWG-Rsn9 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/St.-Michael%27s-college-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=guiaMt4M 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/St.-Michael%27s-college-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=haInnWVI" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-06-24T12:23:50-04:00" title="Monday, June 24, 2019 - 12:23" class="datetime">Mon, 06/24/2019 - 12:23</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and Թϱ are co-hosting the Media Ecology Association's annual convention this week (photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/martyn-wendell-jones" hreflang="en">Martyn Wendell Jones</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/centre-ethics" hreflang="en">Centre for Ethics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/digital-media" hreflang="en">Digital Media</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ethics" hreflang="en">Ethics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/marshall-mcluhan" hreflang="en">Marshall McLuhan</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/philosophy" hreflang="en">Philosophy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/technology" hreflang="en">Technology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-st-michael-s-college" hreflang="en">University of St. Michael's College</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In a world of fake news, hyper-connectivity&nbsp;and rapidly advancing means of communication, the humanistic and critical perspective of famed media theorist – and University of Toronto professor&nbsp;–<strong>Marshall McLuhan</strong> can feel almost prophetic. So it’s fitting that, this week, hundreds of scholars will converge on Թϱ’s downtown Toronto campus&nbsp;to address many of the most important and challenging questions about media and society today.</p> <p>From June 27-30, the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and Թϱ will co-host the Media Ecology Association (MEA) for its&nbsp;<a href="http://mediaethics.ca/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">20th&nbsp;annual convention</a>. This year’s theme is “Media Ethics: Human Ecology in a Connected World,” and the&nbsp;itinerary&nbsp;includes 80 sessions and events that feature 300 speakers from 30 countries.</p> <p>The international conference is timely, with elections on the horizon in both Canada and the United States.</p> <p>“Given St. Mike’s long tradition of teaching and research infused with a focus on ethics and values, it’s fitting that we, along with Թϱ’s Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, Faculty of Information, and the Centre for Ethics, have joined together with the MEA to inspire the next generation of media scholars,” said&nbsp;St. Michael’s President&nbsp;<strong>David Sylvester</strong>.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Paolo Granata</strong>, an assistant professor of book and media studies, is the chair of this year’s conference. He organized the event with an eye on a technological society developing so quickly that lawmakers and ethicists are struggling&nbsp;to keep pace. Granata explores these ideas in his research and teaching, including the&nbsp;McLuhan Seminar in Creativity and Technology, an SMC One program that features a learning experience in Silicon Valley for first-year students. A number of Granata’s students will also be on hand to participate in and support the proceedings while making connections with scholars in the field.</p> <p>The proceedings will kick off on Wednesday with a pre-conference panel discussion&nbsp;on how the internet is affecting civil society featuring&nbsp;<strong>Mark Kingwell</strong>, a professor in Թϱ’s department of philosophy.&nbsp;Presented by the Toronto Reference Library and the McLuhan Salon Series, “The Social Cost of the Information Age”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-social-cost-of-the-information-age-tickets-63584233153?aff=mediaethics" rel="noopener" target="_blank">networking event</a>&nbsp;is free and open to the public.</p> <p>The formal opening of the convention is on June 27 and will include remarks from the Honourable Karina Gould, Canada's minister of democratic institutions.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The Media Ethics conference provides an important space for Canadians to discuss how they use platforms, the information they are seeing on these platforms and the level of trust they have for these platforms,” says Gould.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Democracy is rooted in the trust of the people in the process and in the legitimacy of the outcome.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:23:50 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 157095 at Honouring Frankenstein's 200th anniversary: Թϱ scholars hold week-long celebration /news/honouring-frankenstein-s-200th-anniversary-u-t-scholars-hold-week-long-celebration <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Honouring Frankenstein's 200th anniversary: Թϱ scholars hold week-long celebration</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-10-22-frankenstein-book-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=aels0C-P 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-10-22-frankenstein-book-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Et-oyQzy 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-10-22-frankenstein-book-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=emU_qIiJ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-10-22-frankenstein-book-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=aels0C-P" alt="Photo of Frankenstein manuscript"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-10-23T00:00:00-04:00" title="Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Tue, 10/23/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The original manuscript of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was exhibited at the University of Oxford in 2010 (photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/martyn-wendell-jones" hreflang="en">Martyn Wendell Jones</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/culture" hreflang="en">Culture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/english" hreflang="en">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/jackman-humanities-institute" hreflang="en">Jackman Humanities Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-st-michael-s-college" hreflang="en">University of St. Michael's College</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>More than two centuries ago, inspired by a frightening daydream, Mary Shelley wrote a novel called&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>; or, <em>The Modern Prometheus</em>. Published in 1818, the story of a scientist who brings to life a monstrous patchwork humanoid would become a classic, and the book has&nbsp;never gone out of print. Two hundred years after Shelley published her novel, its questions about the meaning of human life and society are as freshly compelling in an age of artificial intelligence as they were in the Age of Steam.</p> <p>On this bicentennial anniversary of&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>’s&nbsp;publication, University of&nbsp;Toronto&nbsp;Assistant Professors <strong>Paolo Granata </strong>and <strong>Jean-Olivier Richard, </strong>both at University of St. Michael's College,&nbsp;and&nbsp; <strong>Terry F. Robinson</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of English, are making sure the book receives a worthy celebration. With the sponsorship and support of the Jackman Humanities Institute, the trio has spent months organizing a week-long interdisciplinary program <a href="https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/frankenstein/">Reading&nbsp;Frankenstein: Then, Now, Next</a>, which will run from Oct. 24 to 31. The itinerary includes film screenings, special exhibits, a day-long academic symposium and a marathon reading of the novel at the Toronto Reference Library.</p> <p>“No Western novel past or present has had the same kind of popular, intercultural and interdisciplinary impact as Mary Shelley’s&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>,” says Robinson. On the most basic level, the book remains relevant because it “translates an ancient warning for a modern context – for a society no longer governed by myth but by technology.” That warning? “That unreflective hubris can produce dire consequences.”</p> <p>Granata, who will chair a global conference on media ethics at St. Michael’s in June of 2019, also finds the book’s ethical dimension to be the key to its ongoing relevance, particularly when it comes to today’s rapid advances in technology. “It’s time to take ethics into account for a critical interpretation of the role of technology in today’s world and the future,” he says.</p> <p>This call to action has been associated with&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein&nbsp;</em>since its publication.&nbsp;Richard refers to a paper in which philosopher Heather E. Douglas uses the Manhattan Project – the scientific collaboration that led to the creation of the first nuclear weapons – to illustrate the moral stakes of the book’s ancient warning. (<em>Publishers Weekly</em>&nbsp;quotes&nbsp;a reporter after Hiroshima as saying, “We have created Frankenstein.”)</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__9483 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-10-22-frankenstein-karloff-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Boris Karloff in the Bride of Frankenstein: Nearly 100 years before the film, Frankenstein was adapted for the London stage&nbsp;(photo via John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images)</em></p> <p>Perhaps little known to modern readers is the fact that&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>’s earliest adaptations were for the stage, notes Robinson, and its malleable narrative entertained popular audiences in London “nearly 100 years before Universal Studios introduced Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster.” The book also presents readers with “multiple generic styles [and] narratives” that “serve the deeper philosophical purpose of the novel by providing insight into multiple perspectives.” While the ethical questions have been clear and urgent from the book’s publication, its variable form has made it possible for each generation of readers to respond to the book in markedly different ways.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__9482 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/2018-10-22-mary-shelley-resized.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 435px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><em>Frankenstein&nbsp;</em>helped to establish the genre of science fiction. On Wednesday, a panel presentation at the Merril Collection’s special exhibit “<a href="http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/trl/2018/10/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-200-years-of-mad-science-an-exhibit-.html">200 Years of Mad Science</a>” at the Lillian H. Smith Library will kick off the week-long program. The story by Shelley (pictured left) reflected Romantic-era anxieties about the progress of scientific reason; the moment Dr. Frankenstein’s creature comes to life demonstrates Shelley’s familiarity with “Galvanism,” says Richard – the study of so-called “animal electricity,” a hot scientific topic at the time. (“The specific reanimation of decapitated bodies” using electric currents became a spectacular galvanic fad at the beginning of the 19<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;century, he says.) A century later, early-20<sup>th</sup>-century film adaptations would reflect Progressive-Era beliefs about eugenics and biological determinism, with the doctor’s assistant Igor sealing the creature’s villainous fate by mistakenly stealing a “criminal” brain for it from an anatomy lab.</p> <p><em>Frankenstein&nbsp;</em>continues to spur engagements with contemporary issues. The Cinema Studies Institute’s professor Brian Jacobson will introduce the film&nbsp;<em>Ex Machina&nbsp;</em>(2014) before a&nbsp;screening&nbsp;on Thursday, at St. Michael’s; the movie updates Shelley’s mythology for an era of artificial intelligence. The story has also given expression to new questions about race, justice and society. Novelist Victor Lavalle’s graphic novel&nbsp;<em>Destroyer</em> (2018) continues Shelley’s story in an age of widespread concern over police violence in communities of racialized residents.&nbsp;</p> <p>Richard notes that though Shelley wrote&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>&nbsp;as a frightening ghost story, the novel has lost some of its fear factor. He will introduce a&nbsp;screening&nbsp;of Mel Brooks’&nbsp;<em>Young Frankenstein</em>&nbsp;(1974) on Monday in order to show a more lighthearted side of the book’s cultural reception. The Halloween marathon reading on Wednesday, Oct. 31 at the Toronto Reference library – with interlude music from film adaptations – will serve a similar purpose.</p> <p>But even if&nbsp;Frankenstein&nbsp;doesn’t frighten modern readers, it provides an endless source of fascination to scholars and specialists, many of whom will participate in a daylong “academic campfire”&nbsp;symposium&nbsp;on the book at St. Michael’s on Friday. Presenters from across Canada and the U.S. will discuss topics as diverse as cybernetics, the history of the book’s interpretation, the prospect of “responsible” science and the way that theatrical stagings changed the reception of the book.</p> <p>In celebrating the 200<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;anniversary of&nbsp;<em>Frankenstein</em>, one question seems particularly apt: “Who are the Victor Frankenstein’s of today’s world?” In response to this question,&nbsp;Granata suggests looking into a recent television show –&nbsp;<em>Black Mirror.</em></p> <p><a href="https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/frankenstein/">Reading&nbsp;Frankenstein: Then, Now, Next</a>&nbsp;begins Wednesday. All events will be free and open to the public.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 23 Oct 2018 04:00:00 +0000 noreen.rasbach 145511 at St. Mike's Angel Lab hosts tech leaders Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma at Թϱ /news/st-mike-s-angel-lab-hosts-tech-leaders-anthony-lacavera-and-mark-palma-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">St. Mike's Angel Lab hosts tech leaders Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma at Թϱ</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-01-10-angel-lab.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1cL3NxMe 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-01-10-angel-lab.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=UKZJecZv 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-01-10-angel-lab.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=52CI05Cw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-01-10-angel-lab.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1cL3NxMe" alt="Photo of Angel Lab students with speakers Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-01-10T12:30:24-05:00" title="Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 12:30" class="datetime">Tue, 01/10/2017 - 12:30</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">From left to right, Canadian tech entrepreneur Mark Palma, students Enyi Anudu, Hao Chen, Andrew Dyck and Luke Kyne, and Palma's business partner Anthony Lacavera. The students are part of Angel Lab, St. Mike's initiative for social entrepreneurs</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/martyn-wendell-jones" hreflang="en">Martyn Wendell Jones</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Martyn Wendell Jones</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startup" hreflang="en">Startup</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/st-michael-s-college" hreflang="en">St. Michael's College</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/social-entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Social Entrepreneurship</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Dealing with “spectacular failures” and the politeness of Canadians – those were just some of the challenges faced by Canadian tech entrepreneurs and Թϱ alumni <strong>Anthony Lacavera</strong> and <strong>Mark Palma</strong>.</p> <p>The alumni and business partners shared their experiences recently with students interested in developing social justice startups at Թϱ’s St. Michael’s College.</p> <p>“I’ve had some spectacular failures,” Lacavera said, recalling that in the early 2000s, “I wanted to make payphones free, and sell ads…I would not let it go.”&nbsp;</p> <p>It took three years and millions of dollars before he finally admitted defeat, he added.&nbsp;</p> <p>The fireside chat was attended by St. Michael's College President and Vice-Chancellor <strong>David Mulroney </strong>and Principal and Vice President <strong>Randy Boyagoda</strong>.</p> <p>It was organized and hosted by students from Angel Lab, an initiative St. Mike’s launched last year to help undergrads start enterprises with a social impact. The startup effort is just one of the many ways St. Mike’s has been helping students connect faith with academics&nbsp;– the college's recent initiatives have been featured in the <em>Globe and Mail</em>.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/at-st-michaels-college-at-u-of-t-a-push-to-integrate-faith-and-intellect/article33422892/">Read the<em> Globe and Mail</em> story</a></h3> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3088 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/2017-01-10-tony.lacavera.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>WIND Mobile founder Anthony Lacavera answering students' questions during the fireside chat</em></p> <p>Lacavera, who founded WIND Mobile and Globalive, and Palma, who manages Globalive, have known each other since their days in St. Mike’s residence. &nbsp;</p> <p>Though Toronto is now home to incubators, accelerators, and a tech-friendly venture capital network, the city and academic institutions were not always so hospitable to business projects, said Lacavera.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It’s great to see senior leadership [at St. Michael’s] supporting startup initiatives,” Lacavera said. “The world was so much more difficult to navigate in the mid ‘90s, pre-Internet.”&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="/news/angel-lab-latest-accelerator-u-t-launches-st-mike-s">Read more about Angel Lab</a></h3> <p>Lacavera and Palma talked about the importance of character, a positive outlook and a willingness to work hard – and the pair said their relationship as co-founders was instrumental in helping them succeed.&nbsp;</p> <p>Palma and Lacavera grew up together in Welland, Ont. They attended St. Mike’s where they lived in residence for the duration of their Թϱ careers. Both pursued computer engineering.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I forged many of the friendships that are now lifelong. The community … is very powerful,” Lacavera said of St. Mike’s where he was known to parade around residence in a toga, declaring himself “the emperor of More House.”</p> <p>Palma said St. Mike’s exposed small-town students like him to a much larger and more culturally diverse world – an essential piece of education for anyone working in today’s cosmopolitan tech industry.&nbsp;</p> <p>Earning trust was a challenge in those early days, Lacavera said. As a business owner fresh out of university, he&nbsp;found himself at the head of a team of people who were years older than he was.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3089 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="500" src="/sites/default/files/2017-01-10-markpalma.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Mark Palma talks about his experiences at St. Mike's and in the business world</em></p> <p>Lacavera said the only option for establishing trust and leading effectively was total transparency.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I told people the whole, complete truth,” and this helped him to develop a “very loyal team.”</p> <p>Palma added: “You have to know what you don’t know.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Honesty and humility about unknown risks or issues can help go a long way towards creating trust with clients and employees in the tech industry, they said.<br> &nbsp;<br> Lacavera recalled having to apply for his first business loan at an RBC branch. Today, things are a bit easier for raising capital.</p> <p>WIND Mobile, a company Lacavera founded in 2008 despite widespread doubt and opposition, sold for $1.6 billion CAD in 2015. (The company has since been rebranded as Freedom Mobile.) The move to create&nbsp;WIND was “seen as suicidal” at the time, Lacavera said. Telus, Rogers and Bell appeared too deeply entrenched to allow a new wireless communications provider to enter the fray. Lacavera staked his decade-long record of business success with Globalive Communications in order to launch WIND, and the risk paid off.&nbsp;</p> <p>Asked how to go about pitching unproven technologies to investors, Lacavera stressed the importance of knowing both the technology and the client’s industry.&nbsp;</p> <p>The first step, he said, is getting your client to believe you about the outcomes that your product can deliver.&nbsp;</p> <p>Most people will not be convinced by the pitch, but because “Canadians are really polite,” they might not directly communicate their skepticism, he said. For those who are convinced, “you need to lead them to that outcome,” and “you have to ask for the sale,” he said.&nbsp;</p> <p>Palma agreed and further emphasized the importance of creating a “feedback loop” of customers having a stake in your success.&nbsp;</p> <p>At the end of the day, it’s “simple, rational, common sense” that makes a person fit for business, Lacavera said.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 10 Jan 2017 17:30:24 +0000 lanthierj 103017 at