Accolades
Harold Simpkins (Marketing) was quoted in Andy Riga’s election column in The Gazette on Jan. 19 about the savage online parodies of Liberal campaign ads. He told Riga, “The backlash is coming from people saying Paul Martin is desperate. When we smell desperation it’s not unusual for us to turn on the person in dire straits.” Simpkins was also interviewed on 940 News radio.
Political Science professor André Lecours was quoted on several websites about the federal election, including Branchez-Vous.
In the John Molson School of Business, Ulrike de Brentani (Marketing) won the Best Paper Award–Entrepreneurship and Innovation Track at the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, held last month. The paper, co-authored with Susan E. Reid of Bishop’s University, is titled “The Impact of Market Vision on Early Success with Lead Users: The Case for Radically New High-Tech Products.”
President Claude Lajeunesse helped choose the Personality of the Year for La Presse and Radio-Canada. The jury, made up of Quebec university presidents, chose Dr. Sarah Bellemare, 33, who performed a new surgical procedure for the first time in Quebec that saved a young man’s life. A televised gala was held Jan. 15 to celebrate her achievement and those of 52 others who were identified as Personalities of the Week throughout 2005.
Only one Canadian feature is in competition at Sundance, the premiere American film festival. Eve and the Fire Horse, which is about a Chinese-Canadian family in Vancouver, was produced by BFA Film Production grad Eric Paulsson (BFA Specialization in Film Production, 96) and shot by another, Nicolas Bolduc. It opens commercially across Canada on Jan. 27. There are 73 short films in contention at Sundance (Jan. 19 to 26), and of the five directed by Canadians, two were directed by BFA Film Production graduates, Maxim Giroux and Louise Bourque.
FILE PHOTO
The documentary Being Osama, by Communication Studies professor Tim Schwab (right) and Mahmoud Kaabour had its Middle East-ern premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival recently. Schwab spoke at the festival, as did Kaabour, his former student, who now lives in Dubai. The film documents the lives of six Montrealers named Osama in the aftermath of 9/11. It has been seen on Canadian television and is available from Concordia University Libraries.
Congratulations to playwright Nicolas Billon, who studied English in 1999-2000. He is one of 10 outstanding theatre people from across Canada who will work and study for the next two years with the Soulpepper Academy, an offshoot of the remarkable Toronto-based Soulpepper theatre company. Applicants must have at least four years’ experience, and they are paid a $30,000 yearly salary thanks to a charitable foundation. Billon went on from his year at Concordia to Soulpepper’s Directors Lab and the Stratford Conservatory, and his plays The Measure of Love and The Elephant Song have been produced at the Stratford Festival.
Provost Martin Singer was quoted regarding Concordia’s notable growth in young faculty members and enrolment in an article in the National Post on Jan. 18. The article starts this way: “Montreal’s four universities are undergoing a renaissance that has turned them into one of the city’s hottest job sectors. “