A&S scholars sharing their expertise in the media this week

From the Hamas-Israel war to Saskatchewan’s school pronoun policy, experts from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Arts & Science are sharing their expertise on a variety of issues in the media.

Here’s some of what they had to say this week.

September 29, 2023

• New College information services and instruction librarian Mikayla Redden shares with CBC Radio: Metro Morning and Global News why a team of librarians created the Indian Residential School Survivors’ Storybase.
• Department of Geography & Planning professor and School of Cities director Karen Chapple and School of Cities researchers share with the Financial Post (paywall) data about downtown recovery.
• Department of Economics Professor Emeritus Jack Carr comments in the Financial Post (paywall) on food prices in Canada.

September 30, 2023

• Department of Political Science and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy University Professor Janice Stein and Department of History Professor Emeritus Robert Bothwell discuss the Yaroslav Hunka incident with CBC News online and Radio-Canada.
• Political Science PhD candidate Isabela Dos Santos shares her research with The New York Times (paywall) and CBC Toronto on the village “Oasis of Peace,” which is home to Palestinian Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel.
• Department of Psychology professor Paul Bloom talks to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about empathy and compassion.

October 1, 2023

• Jack Cunningham, program director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and fellow at Trinity College, talks to CBC Radio: The Current about cuts to Canada’s military budget.
• Political Science Associate Professor Phillip Lipscy, who is also director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School, writes for The Diplomat about Japan’s historical struggles and current challenges in becoming a climate change leader.

October 2, 2023

• Department of Sociology Assistant Professor Jan Doering comments for the Brandon Sun on gender discrimination in the workplace.
• Karen Chapple comments for the Toronto Star (paywall) on the proposed zoning changes in Toronto.
• Department of Anthropology Professor Emeritus Marcel Danesi talks to NPR: The Colin McEnroe Show about the history of romantic kissing.

October 3, 2023

• Aurel Braun, affiliated faculty at the Centre for European, Russian & Eurasian Studies at the Munk School, discusses with The Guardian India’s expulsion of Canadian diplomats.
• Political Science Professor Emeritus Nelson Wiseman comments for the Associated Press on India’s expulsion of Canadian diplomats.
• Psychology Professor Emeritus Endel Tulving is remembered in The Globe and Mail (paywall) and the Washington Post (paywall) for unlocking how the mind organizes memories.

October 4, 2023

• Centre of Criminology & Sociolegal Studies Professor Emerita Mariana Valverde writes for the Hill Times (paywall) about the emergency of Canada’s infrastructure needs.
• Munk School affiliated faculty André Sorensen comments for Business Insider on Japan’s housing market.
• Nelson Wiseman comments for CBC News online on the Greenbelt land swap.
• Marcel Danesi talks to Salon about the devotion to former U.S. president Donald Trump among his followers.

October 5, 2023

• Munk School senior fellow Jon Allen shares insight with CBC Radio: The Current, the Toronto Star (paywall), CBC News Network, CBC Radio: Ottawa Morning, CBC Radio: The Early Edition (Vancouver) and CBC Radio: Ontario Today on the Hamas-Israel war.
• Victoria College writing instructor Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer discusses with CBC Books the inspiration behind her book, which is longlisted for the Giller Prize.
• Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology PhD candidate Joe Moysiuk explains to The Globe and Mail (paywall) the allure of fossil hunting.
• History PhD candidate and course instructor Valeria Mantilla Morales comments for CityNews on the difference between Latino and Hispanic terms.
• Geography & Planning Professor and Infrastructure Institute at the School of Cities Director Matti Siemiatycki comments for the Toronto Star (paywall) on issues with the TTC’s Line 2.
• Munk School Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton and the lab’s spyware findings are covered by The New York Times (paywall), Le Monde and USA Today.
• Political Science Professor and Trinity College Fellow John Kirton comments for Bloomberg on the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
• Centre For Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies Associate Professor Jill Carter comments for the Welland Tribune on the project Staging Better Futures.
• Robert Bothwell comments for Yahoo News Canada on the tradition of “dragging” the newly elected Speakers of the House of Commons.

October 6, 2023

• Nobel Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi spoke to The Globe and Mail (paywall) about her human rights work in Iran. The article references Ebadi’s lecture about the Women, Life, Liberty movement in Iran, in delivered in partnership with the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies.

October 7, 2023

• Citizen Lab senior research associate Jeffrey Knockel and fellow Mona Wang share with South China Morning Post the discovery of security loopholes in a keyboard app.
• Janice Stein talks to CBC Radio: The Current and CBC News online about the Hamas-Israel war.

October 8, 2023

• Department of Computer Science University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton shares with CBS: 60 Minutes his insights on the promise and risks of advanced AI.
• Vice-President, International Joseph Wong of Political Science and the Munk School shares a statement with the Times of India that reassures those concerned about tensions with India.
• Munk School Master of Public Policy candidate David Jones writes in The Globe and Mail (paywall) about tech giants and monopolies.

October 9, 2023

• Political Science Professor Emeritus David Rayside comments for the Canadian Press and the London Free Press on the school pronoun policy in Saskatchewan.
• Psychology PhD candidate Veronica Bergstrom shares with USA Today her study on stereotypes about agnostics.
• Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics student Peter Ma shares with Space.com his research that uses AI to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

October 10, 2023

• Department of Physics Professor Amar Vutha shares with CBC Radio: Here and Now insights into CBC’s decision to stop broadcasting its official time signal.
• Aurel Braun shares insight with CBC Radio: Edmonton AM, CBC Radio: Let’s Go, CBC Radio: Information Morning (Fredericton) and CHCH on the Hamas-Israel war.
• Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources Director and Professor Rafael Gomez comments for the Toronto Star (paywall) on the tentative agreement between GM and Unifor.

October 11, 2023

• David Jones writes in The Globe and Mail (paywall) about shrinkflation.
• Karen Chapple discusses affordable housing alternatives on CBC Radio: Metro Morning.
• Rafael Gomez comments for Yahoo News Canada on the possible consequences following MPP Sarah Jama’s statement on the Hamas-Israel war.

October 12, 2023

• Ilana MacDonald, acting outreach coordinator of the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, talks to Toronto.com about the upcoming annual solar eclipse in Ontario.
• Innis College Principal and Cinema Studies Institute and Department of History Professor Charlie Keil discusses with the Canadian Press Taylor Swift’s new concert movie.
• Computer Science Associate Professor Nisarg Shah tells CBC Radio: As It Happens how AI can be used to solve societal problems.