Pilar joins university

A prominent U.S. scholar and activist will be joining the university. Praba Pilar has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in digital humanities and new media by the University of Winnipeg’s Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies. Pilar, who is currently finishing her PhD at the University of California at Davis, will begin her term in January 2013. Pilar has spent the last 10 years as a performance artist, technologist and cultural theorist exploring aspects of emerging technologies which generate new forms of economic, environmental and sexual exploitation and erasure. Her art covers such issues as genetic engineering, nanotechnology and cross-border trafficking of women, according to a university release.

Helping teachers create LGBTQ-safe schools

A University of Winnipeg-led study on issues facing LGBT students in Canadian schools is going national. On Oct. 11, the Every Teacher Project launched across Canada with every national, provincial and territorial teacher organization in English Canada signed on to support the project, the university said in a release. The project is seeking insight from educators about the climate of Canada’s schools for LGBTQ students, and what supports are needed and don’t work. A recent study by the university’s Dr. Catherine Taylor found more than 64 per cent of LGBT student felt unsafe in their schools. Another 21 per cent reported being physically harassed or assaulted. The three-year study, which concluded last year, involved 3,607 Canadian teens.

U of W to address isotope shortage

The University of Winnipeg is joining a partnership that aims to solve Canada’s medical isotope shortage. The University of Winnipeg has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Light Source agency to collaborate in producing the isotopes. Physics professor Dr. Jeffery Martin will join Canadian Light Source Director Dr. Mark de Jong to produce a cheap and available supply (Technetium-99m, or Tc-99m). The isotope can help detect cancers, blocked arteries and heart disease in millions of people around the world each year. In June 2011, the Canadian government launched a process to find alternatives to replace the isotope supply from the deteriorating Chalk River nuclear facility. The MOU, which came into effect Oct. 9, was signed for a three-year period, the university said in a release.

Faculty and staff to be awarded at convocation

The University of Winnipeg will recognize four of its own for their contributions to the university and the broader community at the upcoming fall convocation. Education professor Vern Barrett will receive the Clarence Atchison Award for Excellence in Community Service for his work in education and community service. Grace O’Farrell, who has taught for nearly two decades at the university, will be awarded the Faculty of Business and Economics Chartered Accountants of Manitoba Excellence in Teaching Award. The 2012 Autumn Campus Sustainability Award will be given to Len Cann and Kyle Macdonald for their concurring work in designing and organizing a campus wide energy retrofit plan. That plan is helping the university reduce its greenhouse gas emission to six per cent below 1990 levels by the end of 2012 and 10 per cent below 1990 levels by the end of 2016. The convocation takes place Oct. 21 at the Duckworth Centre.

Published in Volume 67, Number 7 of The Uniter (October 17, 2012)