city-building

Toronto has its fair share of cultural icons. Today, it’s Drake – our chart-topping, Raptors-loving rap superstar whose nickname for Toronto, “the 6ix,” has become a part of our daily lexicon.

In the 1960s, it was a group of forward-thinking intellectuals led by Marshall McLuhan, one of University of Toronto's most famous professors. He became a celebrity as his ideas on mass media, culture and technology attracted fans like John Lennon, Woody Allen and Pierre Trudeau.

A heritage plaque dedicated to McLuhan was unveiled Wednesday at the coach house where he taught and hosted discussions for much of his career. The building is now called the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology.

Starting today, the McLuhan Centre, which is part of the Faculty of Information, will be launching a series of events that explore the value and importance of McLuhan and the famed group of intellectuals who were called the Toronto School of Communication. The McLuhan Centre hopes to spark a conversation that will inspire a new generation of thinkers with a three-day conference called Toronto School: Then, Now, Next.

"McLuhan famously broke and transcended boundaries – between disciplines, between academia and popular culture, between the local and the global," said ��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler at the unveiling event.

"But he was rooted here, among colleagues from a range of disciplines, in what would become known as the Toronto School of Communication – a brilliant talent-cluster that helped accentuate ��˾��ֱ��’s position as a world-leading centre for creativity and leadership in the humanities," he said.

Also in attendance was McLuhan’s son, Michael, who said that what keeps his father “relevant and marvellous today” are the people who continue to debate and discuss McLuhan’s ideas.

“[The conference] just speaks to the far reach that he has all over the world, not just here in the city of Toronto,” he said.

McLuhan along with Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Northrop Frye and musician Glenn Gould formed the Toronto School of Communication, which forever changed how we view our relationship with media and technology.

The three-day conference, which starts today, features guests and speakers from 21 different countries.

"We are really building a community around the label of the Toronto School,” says Paolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary fellow and conference chair.

McLuhan’s insights have never been more relevant than they are today, says ��˾��ֱ�� alumna and editor of The Toronto School of Communication Theory, Rita Watson.

His ideas eerily foreshadow our Internet-obsessed culture and the rise of social networks.

“He predicted a crisis in the modern era as literate ‘mentalities’ that had evolved in literate cultures tried to integrate the effects of electronic media,” says Watson, who will be speaking at the conference.

McLuhan knew electronic media would change our lives, says Granata.

“This kind of network is where the ideas come from. It’s where innovation comes from,” he says.

(Marshall McLuhan at ��˾��ֱ�� in 1973, ��˾��ֱ�� archives)

The Toronto School conference is also an opportunity to give a voice to a more diverse group of media theorists.

“A lot of young women are involved in this conference as student volunteers or as panellists,” says Emma Findlay-White, a fourth-year student at Victoria College in book and media studies and the conference’s volunteer coordinator. “There’s a lot of different ways women are getting their perspective and views out there. It’s important that we’re changing the role women play in media.”

And change is good for the Toronto School.

“We are at the McLuhan Centre not to say what McLuhan said," Granata says. "We are here to do what McLuhan did: foster conversation, participation, foster the awareness about how we can look at the contemporary world.”

Change and resistance in Kensington Market: ��˾��ֱ�� lab tells the community’s story

Romi Levine — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 12:50:00 +0000

Change and resistance in Kensington Market: ��˾��ֱ�� lab tells the community’s story

Romi Levine Fri, 09/16/2016 - 08:50

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(all photos by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Ethnography

Subheadline

"A half-fatalistic, half-embracing attitude toward gentrification"

If you’ve snaked through its mural-filled alleyways, popped into one its many taco joints or passed by the car on Augusta Ave. that seems to have its own grassy ecosystem, you already know of and likely appreciate the uniqueness of Kensington Market.

The downtown neighbourhood has been a favourite hangout for everyone from teens looking for one-of-a-kind vintage outfits to moms grabbing a coffee.

And then there’s its rich multicultural history and its long tradition of grassroots community outreach.

For the University of Toronto’s Ethnography Lab, which studies and records the customs of people and cultures, Kensington Market's cultural diversity made it the perfect subject for a large-scale research project that aims to document the role the neighbourhood plays in a city that’s constantly growing and transforming.

The Kensington Market Research Project (KMRP) was born in as a classroom assignment.

“We created a space where undergraduate students who were doing a course in research methods could gather together the data they had been collecting and put it into a digital archive,” says Joshua Barker, vice-dean of graduate education in the faculty of arts and science and associate professor in the department of anthropology.

Since then, the neighbourhood study has expanded to include Master's and PhD students who are finding different and creative ways of presenting their research.

(Pictured below from left to right: Ethnography Lab's Emily Hertzman, Bronwyn Frey and Joshua Barker)

Graduate anthropology student Bronwyn Frey spent the summer with the Ethnography Lab, filming interviews and editing them into video updates. She plans on creating a documentary with the footage.

She says film is the most powerful way of documenting Kensington’s essence and culture.

“A visual medium is more accessible for one thing. And because Kensington has such a strong visual element, it makes for a really rich film,” she says.

It’s also a way for residents, patrons and shop owners to tell their stories in their own words.

“A lot of people feel very strongly about the neighbourhood, a lot of people have been living there a long time – they’re really invested in it,” Frey says. “They have things they really want to say and want to share so I think it’s good they have a wider platform for doing that.”

As Toronto continues its growth spurt, this platform comes in handy. The construction, development and gentrification taking place in the city has caused a split in opinions in Kensington Market, says Frey.

“I found the greatest division between business owners and activists,” she says. “Business owners welcome higher-end shoppers and have a half-fatalistic, half-embracing attitude toward gentrification. Activists like Friends of Kensington market have put a lot of work into making sure the market stays the way it is.”

KMRP also wants to inspire younger students to pursue social sciences through a high school summer program. With undergraduate mentors, the students are able conduct ethnographic research of their own.

“They got to go out into Kensington Market and talk with people there, make observations and bring their findings back into the classroom and discuss them,” says Barker.

It’s not often ethnography research takes place in our own cities and communities but Ethnography Lab member and anthropology PhD candidate Emily Hertzman says the project represents an important shift.

“In the discipline of anthropology, there’s been a long history of trying to locate ‘others’ in different places and not enough attention to focusing on our own society, our own culture. The project in Kensington market is really an opportunity to do that,” she says.

The Lab’s research hasn’t gone unnoticed. Barker says other universities, like Concordia in Montreal, have shown interest in opening their own ethnography labs.

“Our hope is to create a network of these Canada-wide so students across the country can have urban-based research experiences,” Barker says.

Read the Metro story

Read the Globe and Mail story

��˾��ֱ�� dentistry alumnae restore smiles for domestic abuse survivors

sgupta — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 08:56:58 +0000

��˾��ֱ�� dentistry alumnae restore smiles for domestic abuse survivors sgupta Tue, 03/08/2016 - 03:56

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Maureen Fenn, Tina Meisami, Renu Varshney, Shiva Shadmand)

Dominic Ali

Author legacy

Dominic Ali

Subheadline

"Restore a smile. Empower a woman. Reclaim her life."

Women who escape violent domestic situations for the safety of shelters have few reasons to smile. But one non-profit started by alumnae of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry is offering abused women across southern Ontario the prospect of renewed confidence and well-being.

The Restoring Smiles Project is a charitable network of dentists and physicians who provide free treatment to survivors of domestic violence. Patients are usually referred by shelters and are handled by the Dr. Borna Meisami Commemorative Foundation on a case-by-case basis. (The Foundation is named in honour of the deceased brother of founder Dr. Tina Meisami. Her brother was an orthopaedic surgeon and graduate of the ��˾��ֱ�� who died suddenly just months after turning 40.)

“As a woman, I felt as though I needed to stand up for their rights,” says Dr. Meisami. “As a human being, I felt their pain. As a surgeon, I wanted to fix their oral and facial pain,” she says.

Launched five years ago on International Women’s Day, the project has provided over $200,000 worth of restorative treatment to more than 45 patients, most of whom live in shelters in the GTA. The project's motto – “Restore a smile. Empower a woman. Reclaim her life.” – speaks to the founders' desire not only to improve oral function, but to restore self-confidence in women who have survived abuse.

“It is truly an honor to treat this group of patients,” says Meisami.

In addition to her charitable work as founder and chairwoman of the foundation’s board, Meisami is also the director of Dental Sleep Medicine at the ��˾��ֱ��’s Faculty of Dentistry, and operates a private practice in Toronto.

In fact, it was Meisami’s ��˾��ֱ�� connections that helped get the project started. In its formative stages, she invited four friends from the Faculty of Dentistry to launch the project: Shiva Shadmand, Maureen Fenn, Renu Varshney and Yasmin Mawji.

When the project began, there were just five volunteer treatment providers in Toronto. The operation has since grown to include 18 providers in private clinics in Toronto, Ottawa and St. Catharines.

Patients receive a full scope of dental treatments such as cleanings, fillings, crown and bridge, dental implants, orthodontics, root canals, extractions and surgical facial reconstruction, as well as medical treatments, such as scar revisions. Volunteers focus on eliminating pain and disease and reconstructing the patients’ function in an attempt to improve their health. True to their name, volunteers also focus on rebuilding the patients’ smiles by providing state of the art implant, orthodontic and cosmetic dentistry.

The project has not only brought smiles back to its patients, but to its founder as well. “I am deeply touched by their kindness, their gratitude, their grace, and the connections we make with them,” Meisami says. Her patients might say that those same qualities describe the volunteers of Restoring Smiles.

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Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders

sgupta — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 11:27:24 +0000

Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders sgupta Mon, 10/26/2015 - 07:27

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(photo by Chris Lyn via Flickr)

Brianna Goldberg

Author legacy

Brianna Goldberg

Topic

City & Culture

Top Stories

urban

Undergraduate Education

Undergraduate Students

Faculty of Arts & Science

A new student group is set to leverage young urbanists' creativity and enthusiasm for Toronto.

CivicSpark, a student-driven pilot partnership with local city-building organization CivicAction, will host its first community discussion event on Oct. 27, Building Up the 6ix: Channels for Community Engagement and Social Change.

A 30-minute panel discussion exploring ways students can help build up the city will be followed by a small roundtable where audience members and speakers will together discuss the nature of changing neighbourhoods. (Register for the free event from 6-9pm at Woodsworth College) Drawing audience members into the conversation will be such emerging city leaders as Abigail Moriah (associate development manager of the Regent Park Revitalization Project), Josh Fullan (founder and director, Maximum City), Tom Gleason (executive director, Toronto Youth Cabinet) and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

CivicSpark was co-founded by fourth-year students Edwin White Chacon (political science; ethics, society and law), Sara Urbina (economics; geography) and Joe Becker (political science; Canadian studies). (Read more about CivicSpark). Below, the co-founders explain the group’s mission and the goals of their event.

What is CivicSpark?

Becker CivicSpark is a new group on campus working to transform students from passive observers into active participants in their community. We’re going to accomplish this by creating a non-partisan platform empowering youth to engage with regional social issues in the GTHA. We’ll be hosting a series of interactive panel discussions and roundtables that will lead up to a unique urban policy case competition at the end of the year. By using this model, we hope that students will not only learn more about regional issues, acquire professional skills, and express their opinions but encourage future civic participation as well.

When did it start and why?

Urbina (pictured, below) CivicSpark started through talking, as simple as that. Well maybe a lot of planning, too. But the idea sparked through a series of discussions on: where can we share our knowledge? What options do Arts & Science students have to use their knowledge to create solutions to the issues that face their community?

These questions have always been at the back of our minds but this past May we decided to do something about it. We realized that we have a lot of experience, opinions and knowledge that, with a bit of structure, we can leverage into creative solutions. Through the summer, we drafted and redrafted what we wanted CivicSpark to be and look like. We decided to contact CivicAction regarding a partnership for this pilot because we believe they successfully connect young professionals to work together and use their lived experiences to solve the issues facing the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA). We want to bring youth together and do the same, connect them, provide them with information and then let them do the rest, engage with their city.

What do you hope to achieve with this event? In other words, what do you want people to take away from the experience – both in terms of their knowledge of CivicSpark and of city issues?

White Chacon In collaboration with CivicAction and The Woodsworth Political Society, we’re hoping to plant a seed in these students. Ideally, students will walk away with more knowledge about the intricacies of the issues the city faces. We want them to know that CivicSpark can be the stepping stone to becoming part of the conversation with emerging leaders and city builders.

Who would you encourage to come out to the event and why?

Becker (pictured, right) We’re purposefully encouraging students from every faculty to come out to Building Up the 6ix for two key reasons. First, we believe including a diverse range of voices and perspectives will enrich the conversation we’re going to have. Second, the issues facing this city affect everyone and we want to create a platform for students to become engaged about them.

One of the important things we’ve learned from our parent/partner organization, CivicAction, is that nobody has a monopoly on good ideas. To solve the issues facing this city we’ll need to bring together people from every field and walk of life. We don’t expect to solve all of these issues at this one event but we’re seeing it as a first step towards creating a dialogue on campus and encouraging students to become more engaged.

What interests you about urban issues?

Urbina Urban topics are very important to us because they involve the space in which we live. To create more realistic and innovative solutions we need to better understand the space in which we live, and how society interacts with it. Urban issues are city and community issues. The reason why we talk so much about innovation is because the urban issues we see today are complex in nature and connected to all sectors of society. We must then think of new solutions, perhaps never before used solutions to confront them. For example, what does more green space entail? What are the consequences for current residents, and future residents? What about transit next to the space, will it change? Or education, can the space be used in different ways to maximize its utility?

Urban issues no longer focus just on the physical elements in the space, but also the surrounding environment. This is why we want to engage youth in urban issues. The fact that we live and interact in an urban landscape means that we all have opinions and ideas about what is working, what is not, and why.

What’s on the horizon for CivicSpark?

White Chacon (pictured, right) We’re currently collaborating with the Centre for Community Partnerships, the Association of Political Science Students and the ��˾��ֱ�� Political Forum on an event called Let’s Talk Toronto. This event will focus primarily around civic engagement outside of voting and post-election reflection.

Our CivicSpark team is excited to be working with them and other groups interested in engaging youth beyond traditional means. We’re currently in talks with a few groups on campus interested in being part of our case competition at the end of the year. Our case competition will be unique because it will give students a platform to share creative solutions to real life issues impacting the city.

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city-building

��˾��ֱ�� breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Read more about the McLuhan Centre

Change and resistance in Kensington Market: ��˾��ֱ�� lab tells the community’s story

Read the Metro story

Read the Globe and Mail story

��˾��ֱ�� dentistry alumnae restore smiles for domestic abuse survivors

Undergrads launch CivicSpark Oct. 27: ‘Building up the 6ix’ spurs collaboration between students, city leaders