Category: Massey College

Now a Massey alumnus

This fall, it has been a bit sad to spend my first September at U of T after finishing my five years as a Massey College Junior Fellow: not getting invited to orientation events, or told about the official college photo.

Massey has had an enormous influence over my time at U of T, and it’s hard to imagine how the PhD experience would have been without it. U of T is so big (as is the political science department) that I would never otherwise have had such a sense of community, much less the cross-disciplinary and stimulating environment of Massey.

As an alumnus, I am still free to participate in most college events, and I have been enjoying meeting this year’s crop of Junior Fellows. I’m grateful that I have had the chance to experience graduate school again, after working for long enough to know what a privilege it is.

Remembering Helen

Helen’s funeral was beautiful and a tribute to the influence she has had. It filled the lower level of the Old Vic building at Victoria University. Eulogies from friends, her brother and sister, supervisor, father, and husband were moving and spoke universally of her selflessness and determination to make life count in the face of lifelong cardiac risks. They also detailed her curiosity and insight, devotion to teaching, and impressive academic accomplishments during her PhD.

She had directed that the memorial be held in the style and spirit of her wedding, so there were activities (anthropomorphizing mandarin oranges with black jiffy markers, people spontaneously playing the piano) and vast amounts of excellent food, much of it with meringue googly eyes on it.

The tone ranged from pained and somber to jubilant and appreciative, sometimes within a span of seconds. It was clear from how people spoke of her that my comparatively few experiences with Helen were typical: demonstrative of her compassion, creativity, and immediate willingness to connect with people.

A break from grading

At lunch at Massey College today, the closest available seat was beside a fellow Junior Fellow and photography client who was having lunch with Carolynn Benett, the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.

We were soon joined by a climate change advisor from the Ontario provincial government and ended up talking about carbon capture and storage; the dangers of sea level rise; mitigation pathways for meeting the Paris Agreement climate change targets; the lack of a sufficient climate change plan from any Canadian party or government so far; the imperative not to invest further in long-lived fossil fuel infrastructure; renewable energy options; nuclear power; ways to reduce and replace diesel use in remote communities; and passive houses.

Massey Grand Rounds Symposium 2017

Every year, the Massey Grand Rounds Symposium assembles scholars and practitioners in health-related fields to discuss issues of public importance.

This year’s theme was “Health and Environment: Air, Food, and Drugs” and included presentations on air pollution and asthma; sugar; illicit drugs; violence in urban environments; and housing. I took photos of the whole event.

Grad school in March

Today was both an illustrative and exceptional day.

Breakfast was my standard porridge of kidney beans, quinoa, and mixed frozen vegetables, with a Whole Foods avocado as a bonus and topped with nutritional year and Sriracha sauce. I got a large coffee on my way to my research design class at Trinity College, where my fellow PhD student Erica Rayment presented her research proposal on the effects of women members of parliament on parliamentary discourse and gender policies.

Then I spent the afternoon reading at Massey College, in the welcome and recently unusual company of my friend Aldea. Having come across a reference in a paper on fossil fuel divestment, I dashed across the snowy street to Robarts Library to pick up first one and then a trio of books on universities that divested from apartheid South Africa. I was pleased to see that more universities are divesting from fossil fuels.

At five, a large group of junior fellows assembled in the common room to toast the election of Benjamin Gillard as Don of Hall for next year. It included a few friends who are rarely seen around the college these days, a few also in their fifth and final year of the fellowship, and lots of those who have become fellows in the last few years.

I won’t be attending tonight’s intermediate Judo class because my wrist is still injured and painful, but there is a talk my friend Katerina organized on the “The Hype & Hope of Artificial Intelligence” and I have no shortage of thesis reading and writing to do in the lead up to my own presentation next Tuesday, hopefully with departmental approval and ethical clearance to follow soon after.