Accolades
Congratulations to Hexagram artist/researcher Guylaine Dionne, winner of the 2006 Don Haig Award, a $10,000 bursary. The award is given to a filmmaker in mid-career. It was presented at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto on May 5. Dionne is a graduate of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, where she has taught since 2000. Her work includes Amérique 500 and Mary Shelley, and her next feature-length drama, Serveuses demandées, is in development.
Georgios Vatistas (Mechanical Engineering) will present a paper on “Vortices in Homer’s Odyssey” at an international symposium on Science and Technology in Homeric Epics this summer in Ancient Olympia, Greece. If you would like more information on this fascinating application of engineering to the world of Greek myth, please click here.
Elias Makos, a technical instructor in the Journalism Department, was profiled in The Gazette because he runs the Jumbotron on the side. This amazing light show keeps hockey fans pumped during games in the Bell Centre. Makos said he went to a game in Madison Square Gardens. His reaction: “Wow, our product just blew theirs away.”
Part-time Film Studies lecturer Donato Totaro was invited to give a talk on April 20 at Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, as part of Italian Heritage Month. It was called “The Comedic Treatment of the Taboo in Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to Life is Beautiful.”
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Chris Hinton (Cinema) gave a presentation at the Cinéma-thèque québécoise on May 11 called “1001 Ways to Make a Line Laugh.” He ought to know: Hinton has been nominated for an Oscar (Blackfly) and has won a Genie (cNote) for his remarkable ability to make lines laugh in film animation. He works in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada.
Lorne Switzer (Finance) was on CFCF news on May 2 talking about the rise of the Canadian dollar. He said that within a year or so, if current trends continue, it could be at par with that of the U.S., which would have a negative effect on Canadian exports and tourism.
Paul Hastings (Psychology) was asked by The National (CBC TV) about a Montreal pediatrician who said it could be harmful to place very young children in day care. Hastings said negative effects were unlikely, and would likely be outgrown.
Loyola College alumnus the Hon. John Major has been named to head an investigation into why the Air India trial was so badly botched. Justice Major practiced law with distinction for many years in Alberta, and recently retired from the Supreme Court of Canada. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Concordia in 2003.
Gazette writer Henry Aubin interviewed Sheila McDonough (Religion) and Frank Chalk (History) about how history is taught in Quebec schools. McDonough, a scholar of Islam, said competing versions of history are at the heart of much conflict. Chalk suggested that sovereignists and federalists contribute jointly to the curriculum and let the students see both sides of history.