Faculty of Arts

ARTSbuzz

August 2, 2011 | Summer Reflections & Research Connections

A sincere thanks for your positive responses to the inaugural ArtsBuzz (July 1 issue now posted on the Arts webpage). I hope to make this column an ongoing platform for connecting with faculty and staff, and will discuss important topics in teaching, staffing, and programming in future issues. As always, I look forward to your feedback.  

In this issue I reflect on the summer academic, research conferences, and upcoming research planning.

The Summer Academic
While we all hope for some much-deserved vacation days this time of year, the summer academic has RFA faculty and staff impressively hard at work. In recent travels to Europe I found myself invigorated by explorations of World War I Canadian memorial sites, including Ypres and Passchendaele in Belgium and Vimy and Arras in France. Some of our colleagues are busy researching water technology in mediaeval Yemen, while others still have travelled to the Vatican in Rome to gather information for a new biography. The Jorgenson Hall "tower" may appear quieter than usual, but there is a great deal of hidden activity in manuscripts, proposals, grants, reviews, and creative works being developed and fine-tuned. Research teams are being mobilized in the lab, the research centre, and the community, while MA and PhD candidates continue to receive the steadfast support of their supervisors. With these many demands on your energy, I recognize the importance of protecting your research and creative time from which we all benefit so greatly.

Research Conferences
Several of our faculty are busy organizing academic meetings at Ryerson. I would like to congratulate the recent recipients of SSHRC Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences:

Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy (English) for Counter Culture: The Space and Place of the Chinese Shop, which just took place at Ryerson July 24-26;

Dr. Cathy Ning (Economics) for the 28th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Econometrics Study Group, Ryerson University, on October 21-23;

Dr. Ruth Panofsky (English) for the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory - Canadian Women Writers Conference: Space / Place / Play, Ryerson University, October 27-29;

Dr. Daniel Rubenson (Politics & Public Administration) for a January 19-21, 2012 symposium, Duty and Choice: Participation and Preferences in Democratic Elections, to be held at the Université de Montréal.

Meanwhile, our colleagues in the Department of Economics are hosting the Macroeconomics Workshop Monetary on October 14-15, as well as the International Economics Workshop on October 20-21. On August 9, Dr. Frank Russo (Psychology) will bring together academics and industry experts for a "Seminar on Cognitively Based Music Information Retrieval". This is just a snapshot of the extensive frontline work in which our faculty are engaged as they bring together scholars, students, and thinkers at Ryerson.

The Research Engine
In addition to working closely with Dr. Wendy Cukier, Ryerson's new Vice-President, Research and Innovation, to support and extend the Ryerson Arts vision, the Faculty of Arts will launch a search for an Associate Dean with a central research portfolio. An important gear driving the Arts Faculty research engine are research grants, large and small. Grants propel research and creative practice and provide vital financial support for training our undergraduate and graduate students. We currently have exciting opportunities from CIHR (Operating, POP, Targeted Operating, Catalyst, and Knowledge Synthesis); CFI (Leaders Opportunity, New Initiatives); NSERC (Discovery, Strategic Networks, CREATE, Research Tools); SSHRC (Insight, Partnerships, Public Outreach); and from various Ontario ministries (e.g., Health Promotion, Justice, Long-Term Care, Media Development, MRI) and foundations (Canadian Breast Cancer, Heart & Stroke, Patient Safety, Wellesley Institute). Writing a grant represents an extraordinary time commitment, and advance planning is critical to success. Your achievements in this area greatly benefit our community at large and, in turn, inspire your colleagues’ success.

A warm welcome to all new RFA faculty who have joined us on August 1 on tenure-track and limited-term appointments. I close with an enthusiastic thank you to all of those involved in preparing for August enrollment workshops and orientation activities for students and faculty. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Jean-Paul Boudreau
Dean of Arts