University of St. Michael's College

��˾��ֱ�� alumnus Tony Comper establishes professorship of medieval studies at St. Michael's

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 14:56:20 +0000

��˾��ֱ�� alumnus Tony Comper establishes professorship of medieval studies at St. Michael's

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/03/2020 - 09:56

Catherine Mulroney

Topic

Our Community

��˾��ֱ��

Faculty of Arts & Science

Medieval Studies

University of St. Michael's College

David Sylvester, the president and vice-chancellor of the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto, has announced the establishment of the Comper Professorship in Medieval Studies.

This newly endowed position was made possible by an investment by Tony Comper, a St. Michael’s alumnus. Sylvester also announced that Alison More has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Comper Professorship. More, an assistant professor, is a highly regarded scholar of Latin whose research investigates the intersections of social and religious culture in late-medieval Northern Europe.

The donation reflects Comper’s firm belief that studying the humanities offers invaluable benefits both personally and professionally – and that St. Michael’s is on the right path with its renewal as a vibrant centre of undergraduate education at ��˾��ֱ��.

“Studying liberal arts, in particular literature, provides significant insight into human nature; (it offers) essential knowledge in interpersonal skills, the most important skill for success in business and indeed in life,” says Comper (left), who is the retired president and CEO of BMO Financial Group.

Comper recently returned to ��˾��ֱ�� to take courses in Medieval Studies, a Faculty of Arts & Science undergraduate program sponsored by the University of St. Michael’s College that is available to all ��˾��ֱ�� arts and science students. This gave him a front-row seat to the revitalization of arts and science undergraduate programs sponsored by St. Michael’s. Pleased with what he saw, he offered the university a unique hybrid investment in teaching by funding this position. The gift is comprised of a multi-million dollar bequest and the promise of annual funding, effective immediately, in the intervening years to cover salary and benefits. The faculty position is one of six that St. Michael’s implemented in 2017 as part of its focus on teaching excellence in the four undergraduate programs it sponsors: Book and Media Studies, Christianity and Culture, Celtic Studies, and Medieval Studies.

More (left) came to St. Michael’s from the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent, where she designed and taught core courses on Latin and palaeography. She and the other assistant professors who joined the community at St. Michael’s and ��˾��ֱ�� three years ago have become a vital part of social and academic renewal. They have enhanced students’ learning experiences through their engaged and creative teaching and research interests, and have contributed a great deal to the culture and community of the college beyond the classroom by supporting student-run initiatives and presenting public lectures for alumni. The Comper gift, meanwhile, represents the first step in a campaign to ensure the professorships remain permanent.

“This generous gift is an extraordinary demonstration of the confidence in the renaissance underway at St. Michael’s,” says Sylvester. “It’s also a model of funding for other professorships, and an ideal example of how St. Mike’s continues to renew itself through endowed legacy positions. We’re thrilled that an outstanding philanthropist like Comper has demonstrated his dedication to his alma mater in this way.”

“St. Michael’s and the wider ��˾��ֱ�� share a long tradition of international excellence in the field of medieval studies,” says ��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler. “Tony Comper’s wonderful gift will help to strengthen that tradition for future generations, and to accelerate the renewal of undergraduate education at the college. His generosity also builds on his long record of leadership in the University community, including his previous service as chair of ��˾��ֱ��’s Governing Council, as well as his and his late wife Elizabeth’s support for the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. We applaud this latest contribution to our collective success.”

With its combination of intensive Latin study alongside explorations of theology, literature, history, culture and manuscripts, the Medieval Studies program invites students not just to study the Middle Ages, but to also join a great tradition of inquiry and discovery that’s enlivened by the world-renowned professors who have taught medieval studies at St. Michael’s over the years, including Étienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain, Edward Synan, Margaret Frances Nims, Mary Arthur Knowlton and Colin Chase.

The University of St. Michael’s College has a long tradition of teaching and research in medieval disciplines and its library has rich resources in the field. The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies library, which is housed in the John M. Kelly Library, includes rare, non-circulating books and draws scholars from around the world. The college recently signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with PIMS and ��˾��ֱ�� recommitting to collaborative work in research, teaching and publication.

��˾��ֱ�� Talks: Anne Kingston and Jessica Johnson on the #MeToo movement (video)

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

��˾��ֱ�� Talks: Anne Kingston and Jessica Johnson on the #MeToo movement (video) noreen.rasbach Mon, 11/25/2019 - 00:00

Topic

City & Culture

#MeToo

Global

University of St. Michael's College

University of Toronto students had the opportunity this fall to study the #MeToo social movement.

Anne Kingston, a senior writer and columnist for Maclean’s magazine, and Jessica Johnson, executive editor of The Walrus, are teaching #MeToo and the Media, a course at the University of St. Michael’s College that’s designed to help students develop an analytic understanding of the movement and the cultural shift associated with it.

The course looks at contemporary cases, including those of Canadian broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi and media mogul Harvey Weinstein, while also examining the movement’s origins, public conversations, controversies and evolution.

"#MeToo [as a hashtag] started with the Weinstein story, which was so explosive, but, in a way, what happened after Weinstein on social media and with the #MeToo hashtag really was the culmination of so many media stories that had gone back,” said Kingston.

In this video, Kingston and Johnson speak about #MeToo and its impact.

Read a ��˾��ֱ�� News story about the course

Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to ��˾��ֱ�� students

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:50:11 +0000

Olivier Latry, organist at Notre Dame, to perform at St. Basil’s Church and give master class to ��˾��ֱ�� students

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/18/2019 - 09:50

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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)

Topic

University of St. Michael's College

After fire destroyed much of Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this year, Paris and the world were relieved to discover that the landmark’s 19^th-century Cavaillé-Coll organ – one of the most powerful and moving organs in the world – had survived the blaze.

Now, seven months after the fire on April 15, one of the few people in the world to play regularly 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^th anniversary of the installation of the church’s organ.

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.

“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.

“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.

“I’m always thinking about the organ 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.”

The Casavant Frères organ Latry will play at 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.

“St. Michael’s is thrilled to celebrate the 100^th 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 David Sylvester.

The organ at St. Basil’s Church at the University of St. Michael’s College (photo courtesy of University of St. Michael’s College)

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.

“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.

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.”

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.

The longest continuously operating building on the ��˾��ֱ�� 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.

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,” Rice says.

Latry’s Nov. 22 performance will follow a special interview with John Paul Farahat, director of music and principal organist at St. Basil’s. 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.

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.”

The lowering of the organ’s façade was intended to create “a visual component to that [beautiful sound],” Farahat says, adding that a priority during the rebuild was creating “an exceptional teaching instrument for organ students in general.”

Farahat says the organ has become a resource to ��˾��ֱ�� students studying organ performance, as well as professors and music directors who come from all over the city to play the instrument.

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.

In addition to his evening concert at St. Basil’s, Latry will provide high-level personalized instruction to four students from ��˾��ֱ��’s Faculty of Music, who will have an opportunity to join him in the organ loft Friday morning for a two-hour master class.

Faculty of Music Associate Professor Kevin Komisaruk 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.

“Latry is a world celebrity among organists,” says Komisaruk, who has also been an organist at St. Basil’s. “It is always a transformative thrill for students who get a chance to see themselves in their role models.

“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 and perform at this historic instrument.”

One of the students in Latry’s master class is Stefani Bedin, an associate organist at the church who is also pursuing a doctor of musical arts in performance degree.

“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 and the wider community has made this truly exceptional event possible.”

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.

“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.”

More than anything else, that enjoyment is what he hopes to provide during his St. Basil’s performance.

“I would say to the people: Just come and listen and enjoy.”

New ��˾��ֱ�� course to examine #MeToo and the media

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 17:01:30 +0000

New ��˾��ֱ�� course to examine #MeToo and the media

noreen.rasbach Mon, 08/12/2019 - 13:01

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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 )

Topic

Undergraduate Students

University of St. Michael's College

In 2017, major media exposés of predatory sexual behaviour by powerful figures unleashed #MeToo, a hashtag now tweeted and shared more than 20 million times.

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.

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.

Beginning Sept. 5, Jessica Johnson, executive editor and creative director of The Walrus magazine, and Anne Kingston, senior writer and columnist for Maclean’s, 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.

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.

“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 ��˾��ֱ�� students, which creates an opportunity for a special kind of dialogue in the classroom.”

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.

Kingston, who covered the trials of Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby and has done extensive reporting on #MeToo, acknowledges that the ongoing, dynamic nature of #MeToo creates unique challenges for the course, but sees the Book and Media Studies program as an ideal framework.

“St. Michael’s well-received ‘Trump and the Media’ 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.

Kingston points to the upcoming trial of Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard as one possible example.

“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 Randy Boyagoda says.

“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.”

Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at ��˾��ֱ�� builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:23:50 +0000

Media ethics in the fake news era: Conference at ��˾��ֱ�� builds on Marshall McLuhan’s legacy

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/24/2019 - 12:23

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The University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and ��˾��ֱ�� are co-hosting the Media Ecology Association's annual convention this week (photo by Makeda Marc-Ali)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Information

University of St. Michael's College

In a world of fake news, hyper-connectivity and rapidly advancing means of communication, the humanistic and critical perspective of famed media theorist – and University of Toronto professor –Marshall McLuhan can feel almost prophetic. So it’s fitting that, this week, hundreds of scholars will converge on ��˾��ֱ��’s downtown Toronto campus to address many of the most important and challenging questions about media and society today.

From June 27-30, the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto and ��˾��ֱ�� will co-host the Media Ecology Association (MEA) for its 20th annual convention. This year’s theme is “Media Ethics: Human Ecology in a Connected World,” and the itinerary includes 80 sessions and events that feature 300 speakers from 30 countries.

The international conference is timely, with elections on the horizon in both Canada and the United States.

“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 ��˾��ֱ��’s Faculty of Arts & Science, Faculty of Information, and the Centre for Ethics, have joined together with the MEA to inspire the next generation of media scholars,” said St. Michael’s President David Sylvester.

Paolo Granata, 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 to keep pace. Granata explores these ideas in his research and teaching, including the 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.

The proceedings will kick off on Wednesday with a pre-conference panel discussion on how the internet is affecting civil society featuring Mark Kingwell, a professor in ��˾��ֱ��’s department of philosophy. Presented by the Toronto Reference Library and the McLuhan Salon Series, “The Social Cost of the Information Age” networking event is free and open to the public.

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.

“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.

“Democracy is rooted in the trust of the people in the process and in the legitimacy of the outcome.”

��˾��ֱ��'s Randy Boyagoda writes about 'tragic familiarity' of Sri Lanka bombings in the New York Times

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 22 Apr 2019 14:15:25 +0000

��˾��ֱ��'s Randy Boyagoda writes about 'tragic familiarity' of Sri Lanka bombings in the New York Times

geoff.vendeville Mon, 04/22/2019 - 10:15

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Randy Boyagoda, a ��˾��ֱ�� English professor and principal of St. Michael's College, has family connections in Sri Lanka and wrote about the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in the New York Times (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Global Lens

English

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Humanities

University of St. Michael's College

The attacks on hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, which left almost 300 dead, were “more than just a national or religious tragedy,” writes Randy Boyagoda in the New York Times.

In an opinion piece for the newspaper, the author, ��˾��ֱ�� English professor and principal of St. Michael's College, says the attacks affected him personally as a Catholic member of the Sri Lankan diaspora.

While Sri Lanka is no stranger to violence as a result of its nearly 30-year civil war, he says the suicide bombings mean the country has gained “membership in a global conflict that is at once fresh and familiar, for the island and the world.”

Read the full op-ed in the New York Times

Abuse crisis in Catholic Church is subject of conference at University of St. Michael's College

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 22:37:18 +0000

Abuse crisis in Catholic Church is subject of conference at University of St. Michael's College

noreen.rasbach Wed, 03/13/2019 - 18:37

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Leona Huggins holds up her message to Pope Francis in Rome last month. She will attend this week's conference on clergy sexual abuse at the University of St. Michael's College (photo by Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images)

Topic

University of St. Michael's College

Leona Huggins remembers clearly why her parish priest stopped abusing her.

“I got too old, too aware. He couldn’t control me,” says Huggins, who spoke about her childhood experiences and her current work advocating for an end to clergy sexual abuse in a recent episode of the Global News This is Why podcast.

When Huggins discovered years later that the man who abused her when she was 13 was now working with a youth group, she stepped forward with her story and became an activist.

The priest served 10 months in jail on various abuse-related charges, but returned to active ministry elsewhere.

Huggins, who lives in Vancouver, was the sole Canadian among the 12 abuse survivors offered a chance to address last month’s unprecedented Vatican summit on clergy sexual abuse. Now, she will be a key participant in a two-day event at the University of St. Michael’s College looking at the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.

“The Wounded Body of Christ: Listening and Responding to Abuse in the Church," which takes place Thursday and Friday, will include input from legal, medical and pastoral experts. It will also hear from three survivors of clerical sexual abuse, including Huggins, who will share their stories as well as their advice on how to end the crisis.

The event begins with a keynote address Thursday evening by Dr. Brian Flanagan, associate professor of theology and religious studies at Virginia’s Marymount University. His talk is titled “Believing in a Sinful and Holy Church.”

Dr. Nuala Kenny, a professor emeritus of bioethics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, will deliver a paper Friday sharing insight she has gained as a physician in diagnosing and treating clerical sexual abuse, while Mary Ann Hinsdale, an associate professor of theology at Boston College, will address the links between clericalism and abuse.

A group discussion toward the end of Friday will bring together the range of voices involved in addressing what Pope Francis has called “the pain and unbearable suffering” the scandals have caused. That discussion will be moderated by David Byrne, a doctoral student whose work addresses ethical, spiritual, moral and practical issues in society’s – and the courts’ – response to sex offenders.

The St. Michael's conference comes as survivors and the broader church assess what did and did not come out of the Vatican conference, as well as what next steps are needed to end a crisis that has rocked the church to its core.

“The question of clerical sexual abuse is such a complex issue,” says James Ginther, dean of the Faculty of Theology at St. Michael's. “We need to hear from the survivors because the onus is on us to become agents of change, creating a church that doesn’t allow any space for abuse. We need to ensure our ecclesiastical leaders can’t let this happen again.”

As Huggins told the This is Why podcast, the Vatican summit left her disappointed she didn’t see a more practical action plan come out of the meetings. The church is still “parsing” what abuse is, she says, adding that until it takes a “really good look at the rot within,” the church’s right to position itself as a moral authority is threatened.

Huggins stepped forward with her story in 1992, 15 years after her experience of abuse. While in Rome, she met a 22-year-old abuse survivor, which she sees as evidence that offers of handbooks and talking points have not done enough to end the crime.

“I’d love to stop telling my story,” she says.

This is ��˾��ֱ��: Randy Boyagoda talks about multiculturalism in literature and his novel Original Prin

Romi Levine — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 20:03:23 +0000

This is ��˾��ֱ��: Randy Boyagoda talks about multiculturalism in literature and his novel Original Prin

Romi Levine Tue, 01/22/2019 - 15:03

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Randy Boyagoda, English professor and principal and vice-president of ��˾��ֱ��’s University of St. Michael’s College (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

University of St. Michael's College

As a writer, Randy Boyagoda is curious about what it means to find sources of humanity in unexpected places. It's a narrative he weaves into many of the stories he writes – and most recently in his third novel, Original Prin.

The book follows Princely "Prin" St. John Umbiligoda, a Sri Lankan-Canadian professor at a Catholic College in Toronto, who is simultaneously grappling with work and family life, religion and illness.

While there are many parallels between the lives of Umbiligoda and Boyagoda, the English professor and principal and vice-president of ��˾��ֱ��’s University of St. Michael’s College, says Original Prin is not a thinly veiled autobiography, but adds, "I could inhabit the world he’s in.”

Watch Boyagoda speak about his new novel, what multicultural Canadian writing looks like, and – with his busy schedule – when he finds time to put pen to paper.

Former New York Times books editor on what makes a great review and why U.S. political coverage needs to change

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 15:02:49 +0000

Former New York Times books editor on what makes a great review and why U.S. political coverage needs to change

noreen.rasbach Tue, 11/27/2018 - 10:02

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"I’ve done a fair amount of teaching at one place or another in the U.S., but this is great," says Sam Tanenhaus, a visiting professor at ��˾��ֱ��. "The students are just the best" (photo by Aloysius Wong)

Topic

University of St. Michael's College

Sam Tanenhaus, a prolific and influential journalist, author, historian and former editor of the New York Times Book Review, is teaching two courses at the University of Toronto this term as a visiting professor for book and media studies at the University of St. Michael’s College.

His articles and essays appear in Vanity Fair, Time, Esquire, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and many other publications. His books include Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1997) and The Death of Conservatism (2009). He is working on a biography of William F. Buckley Jr.

Tanenhaus will moderate a discussion on Friday on The Art of the Book Review, with Jennifer Szalai, a ��˾��ֱ�� alumna who is a nonfiction book critic at the Times, and Randy Boyagoda, an English professor who is the principal of St. Michael's and long-time contributor to the New York Times Book Review.

Tanenhaus speaks to Mary Gooderham about his teaching at ��˾��ֱ��, his writing and what makes a good book review.

Your talk this week is on “The art of the book review.” What do you look for in a good review?

It’s not simply a matter of thumbs up or thumbs down, of stating your opinion and letting people know whether you like a book. If it’s done well, it can be a really superb form of journalism. Oscar Wilde once said criticism is the highest form of autobiography, and I think really good reviewers are actually writing miniature memoirs that invite readers in to share the experience of reading a particular book or books.

How are reviews received by authors? How do they feel about the negative ones?

Miserable. Do not believe any author who tells you that he or she doesn’t read reviews. It’s just not true. When I was editing the Book Review, I would hear from some of the most famous authors alive who might not be happy with a line or two in a review that was otherwise laudatory. Authors have a proprietary view – and I’m no different – of their work. They tend to think reviewers are dismissive, skeptical or they haven’t really read the book.

Is that true?

Sometimes I’m afraid it probably is. Reviewers are not paid very well, and it’s a lot of work. When I do a long review for a publication, like the New York Review of Books, I’ll re-read a book a second and third time, to make sure I’ve really got command of it.

There’s fewer places in print these days for book reviews, do we really need them?

If there’s a good local reviewer who readers trust, in a big city like Toronto or a smaller town somewhere, that can do more for a book than the splashier forms of promotion and publicity. Now, that said, many readers now turn to Amazon reviews, and there's a lot of book discussion today online. I don’t follow more than a fraction of it. I’m kind of an older legacy media guy who’s just watching the world change.

Why did you come to teach at the University of Toronto?

I’m near to completing the first draft of my book, and teaching for somebody like me gives a little structure to the week. My wife Kathy Bonomi is a film curator, and she was able to get an industry pass for TIFF. So here we are.

How are you liking Toronto?

We love it. In Connecticut we live out in the country and it’s beautiful, it’s quiet, it’s a great place to work, but to be back in a vibrant, really livable city like Toronto has been very gratifying for us.

Have you enjoyed the teaching?

It’s fantastic. I’ve done a fair amount of teaching at one place or another in the U.S., but this is great. The students are just the best, I really like them. I do two courses, including a large lecture course, which is really just a big conversation among 180 of us. It’s called Trump in the Media; we sometimes call it “Trump in Real Time."

How does that go?

We have readings but we spend a lot of time viewing video, sometimes it’s live. We watched Brett Kavanaugh’s prepared remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee live, then after that we screened Christine Blasey Ford’s statement. That’s the kind of thing we do; it’s very stimulating.

What’s it like teaching this in Canada?

It’s very instructive for me. I do not exaggerate – and the kids will confirm this – they do most of the talking. I’m kind of a ringmaster, and I bring in a little history and background. It’s hard to make coherent sense of politics in this moment, so if you step away from it, as I’ve been lucky enough to do, and talk with really smart, young people, it gives a perspective and a balance which I would never get in the U.S. I’m very grateful for that.

What’s the other course you're teaching?

It’s a seminar on long-form journalism, I call it “The Art of Non-Fiction Narrative.” There are 30 students. We do an old-style close reading, and then the students write their own journalism, and you would not believe some of the stuff I’ve seen. Stories come through that I think belong in major feature magazines. They’ve all got the bug now, they all want to be New Yorker writers.

Speaking of long-form writing, tell us about the process of putting together your book on William F. Buckley Jr.?

Let’s just say it’s been a really long time. He was alive when I started writing, because he wanted me to do it. I’m closing in on the finish. There are two kinds of writers, putter-inners and taker-outers, and I’m both. My work habits I would say are of zero interest to anyone, but I just pile up a lot of pages and I try to turn those pages into a manuscript. I’m guessing the book will be maybe 600 pages, and that will be about a third of what I will have when I complete this first draft.

You wrote The Death of Conservativism and you’ve been doing interesting political features for publications like Vanity Fair and Esquire. Any possibility you’ll write a quick political book?

Well, I’m doing a long political book. Buckley is political, he’s the greatest intellectual in the history of modern conservatism. This may do it for me on big books on politics, though I may do a little book on the U.S. Constitution – which I think needs to be either rewritten or abandoned – after I finish this.

Your students must have been fascinated with reporting of the U.S. midterms, any lessons there?

My class and I looked at some the media coverage: We looked at CNN for instance, and the horse-race coverage – I just wish it would stop. I understand why they do it, but I think we’ve entered a media culture of artificial or invented narratives that actually feed some of the baser impulses in our aggressive politics. So that’s one of the takeaways I have – it was really striking. And by the way, the students get this instantly. They are great parsers of media.

What's the alternative to the horse race?

In my class we watch 20 minutes of coverage and I’ll say, ‘What did we not see here? We didn’t see a single non-media person or spinmeister or operative for one of the two parties giving a little speech or having a brawl.’ In the U.S., there's endless commentary by the media about the media and very little about what's on the minds of voters and what their lives are like. That is certainly one alternative. I look at the home page of the New York Times and it’s one polemical assertion after another, and I think it’s not doing anyone any good.

What can be done about it?

I’ve stopped doing that kind of writing. I report now. If you look at my last stories, they were reported. I did one in The New Republic that’s a historical kind of political science piece – it draws on documents in archives. I did a story for Time magazine, my first story ever for them, it was on the cover, it was about young policy analysts who actually think Trump gives the Republican party new opportunities to shed the libertarian economic policy of the Reagan and Bush years, and it’s reporting. I just talked to them. I did the story from here, I did it on the telephone. The lesson I’ve learned –you interview people, talk to them, not just say what you think. Nothing’s easier than to give your opinion, but to find out what somebody else thinks, to hear how they speak, what issues come up, I’d like to see more of that.

The Art of the Book Review will take place at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Friday, Nov. 30. Students receive $10 off the ticket prices using the code STUDENT.

What swimming on ��˾��ֱ��'s varsity team taught Environment Minister Catherine McKenna

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

What swimming on ��˾��ֱ��'s varsity team taught Environment Minister Catherine McKenna

geoff.vendeville Thu, 11/22/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

The men's and women's swimming teams in 1993-1994: Catherine McKenna, now the federal environment minister, is in the second row, second from right (photo courtesy of Byron MacDonald)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Our Community

��˾��ֱ��

University of St. Michael's College

Varsity Blues

Mid-campaign season in 2015, Catherine McKenna swam four kilometres from Aylmer, Que. to Ottawa – then dried off and resumed knocking on voters’ doors.

Her experience as a competitive swimmer, including a member of three national champion Varsity Blues swim teams, taught her the value of perseverance and teamwork, she told ��˾��ֱ�� News in a phone interview – above the chatter of the House of Commons.

McKenna, the federal minister for the environment and climate change, was a student at ��˾��ֱ��’s University of St. Michael's College, studying international relations and French. But you could say her student years were semi-aquatic. She practised with the Varsity Blues two or three times a day, with training starting as early as 5 a.m. Her best events were the 200-metre backstroke and the 400-metre medley.

“The swim team really was the best part of my experience,” she says. “I made friends for life and also learned some really awesome lessons.”

Her passion for swimming blossomed in her hometown of Hamilton, where she swam for a local club, and grew under the coaching of Byron MacDonald, now in his 41^st season with the varsity swimming program.

Around the time McKenna came to ��˾��ֱ��, Mark Tewksbury won the Olympic gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke in Barcelona, bringing prominence to the sport in Canada. The ��˾��ֱ�� program was in a purple patch, attracting a dynamic group of high-achievers, MacDonald says. “Catherine being one of them,” he adds.

“Catherine was one of the toughest trainers we had on that squad,” he recalls. “She knew there were other athletes who may be more talented, but that she could best them if she out-worked them.”

Of all the lessons she soaked up as a member and then captain of the varsity team, the most important was the value of teamwork, McKenna says.

Although people tend to think of swimming as an individual sport, on a university team, every person’s performance – and each point – counts.

She’s drawn from that experience to confront challenges long after graduation, in law and federal politics.

“My file is a hard file,” she says. “Working on climate change is not a short-term thing. You don’t do it one day, you have to keep working at it.”

As it is in the pool, teamwork is essential. “You don’t do things alone,” she says. “You don't get elected alone, you don't deliver on what you're trying to work on alone. Swimming really taught me that.”

Even now, she finds time to swim with the National Capital Masters Team. Just don’t ask her about her times, she jokes.

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What swimming on ��˾��ֱ��'s varsity team taught Environment Minister Catherine McKenna