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

From a candidate who requested a fee for participating in a panel discussion during Canada’s federal election, to the need for a strategy to support Canadian innovation, scholars 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 10, 2021

• Department of Political Science professor David Cameron comments in a Toronto Star story about a candidate who asked for a fee for participating in a panel discussion ahead of this month’s federal election.
• Anver Emon, director of the Institute of Islamic Studies and a professor in the Department of History and the Faculty of Law, comments in the Toronto Star (paywall) on the perception of Muslims and Islam in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.
• Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology assistant professor Chelsea Rochman speaks in Global News on the amount of plastic present in Canadian lakes, rivers and oceans, and inside the organisms that live in those waters.
• Joseph Moysiuk, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, along with Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Department of Earth Sciences professor Jean-Bernard Caron, explain in Smithsonian Magazine the discovery of a new species of sea creature that prowled the ocean floor more than 500 million years ago.

September 11, 2021

• University Professor Janice Stein of the Department of Political Science and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy comments in CBC News on how the September 11, 2001 terror attacks led to a tightening of international borders around the world.
• Dimitry Anastakis, a professor in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management, comments in the Toronto Star on the supply-chain impact on the production of new cars due to a shortage in computer microchips.
• Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology PhD candidate Kennedy Bucci explains her research into plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems this past summer on CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks (listen at 48:37).

September 12, 2021

• A report co-authored by professor Scot Wortley, acting director of the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, is cited in a Halifax Examiner story analysing an acknowledgement by the RCMP that street checks by Halifax police officers have disproportionately focused on Black citizens.

September 13, 2021

• John Scott-Railton and Bill Marczak, researchers with the Citizen Lab at the Munk School, speak in CBC News, Bloomberg and Vice about their discovery of a security flaw in Apple’s iMessage chat software that allowed iPhones, iPads and watches to be infected with spyware, prompting Apple to release a security patch and call on users to update their devices.

September 14, 2021

• Department of Political Science professor emeritus Nelson Wiseman speaks in Global News about close races in several ridings across Canada in this month’s federal election.
• Eric Merkley, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, speaks on CTV about ridings across Canada in which there is no incumbent running for election.
• Aurel Braun, a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Centre for European, Russian & Eurasian Studies at the Munk School, comments in a National Post (paywall) story about the refusal of diplomats at the embassy of Afghanistan in Ottawa to recognize the Taliban as the country’s government.

September 15, 2021

• Professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik in the Departments of Chemistry and Computer Science comments in Nature on the impact of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s science background on policy-making.
• Department of Earth Sciences professor Miriam Diamond comments in a Global News story about the lifting of a 24-years-long boil water advisory for Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in northern Ontario.
• Munk School assistant professor Sean Speer comments in the National Post (paywall) on the lack of attention paid by Canadian political parties to ensuring long-term economic growth of the country’s economy.

September 16, 2021

• Department of Sociology associate professor Jooyoung Lee writes a Globe and Mail op-ed examining gun violence in Canada in the context of Canada’s federal election.
• Munk School professor Drew Fagan comments in a TVO story that examines how transit planning by all levels of government can play a part in Canada’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Professor Dan Breznitz of the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School and the Department of Political Science, co-authors a Globe and Mail op-ed with Rotman School of Management professor Daniel Trefler that argues for the urgent adoption of a strategy to support innovation in Canada.
• Department of Sociology PhD student Kayla Preston writes an op-ed first published in The Conversation and reprinted in Yahoo! exploring populism and far right political activity in Canada ahead of the federal election.