The Massey College mentorship program, Meeting of the Minds, was launched 25 years ago in 1999, and has matched almost 1000 Junior Fellows with senior members since that time! These are mutually beneficial relationships for both, and is one of the core activities that supports the intergenerational and interdisciplinary mission of the College. I’d like to encourage you to put your name forward to serve as a mentor this year.
Also, while you’re thinking about this, please plan to come to our first formal dinner on Monday September 9th, or the second one on Wednesday, September 11th. Meet friends, Alumni, Senior members and Junior Fellows and dive into the thing that is Massey!
Applications for mentors and mentees are open until August 25.
The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations are hosting their Annual Three Fires Homecoming Pow Wow on August 24-25. It is open to everyone. I encourage you to go. More details to come here.
ALUMNI AGM & BBQ
We are just a few weeks away from the Massey College Alumni Association’s annual general meeting and BBQ. Everyone is welcome on Saturday, July 27 from 4:00-7:00pm.
Participants will elect new members to the Alumni Council (click here if you are interested in running for a position), get an update on the Alumni Council’s activities, and discuss issues affecting Massey Alum. The Council is seeking project proposals for funding. (See details here). If you cannot join in person, Zoom is available, see link below.
SUMMER RESIDENCE
We’re offering 15% off our usual accommodation rates with the discount code: ALUM/SF2024 to make travel more affordable. All members of the Massey community, their colleagues, and loved ones from out of town are welcome to stay at the college. Please view and share this short video.
BOOK CLUB
Our 2024-2025 Massey College Book Club books have now been selected thanks to suggestions by the community. Review the list here.
Happy summer reading!
SEEING INSIDE A COLLECTION: THE VISUALITIES AND MATERIALITIES OF THE ROBERTSON DAVIES LIBRARY
A new exhibition invites you to peer inside the Lower Library’s collections, combining a bird’s eye view of visualizations of the catalogue data with a selection of books and other items that help us learn about the collection’s visual languages and some of the imaginative ways of seeing that its materials suggest.
COMMUNITY NEWS
AWARDS
The Order of Canada was recently announced. I want to congratulate members of our community who received these honours:
- Senior Fellow Franklyn Griffiths (Member)
- Senior Fellow Daphne Maurer (Officer)
- Senior Fellow Donald Simpson (Member)
I am also deeply grateful to be appointed as a Member.
- Quadrangle Society Member (and 2019 CBC Massey Lecturer) Sally Armstrong co-authored Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan with Sima Samar which has been longlisted for the 2024 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing.
- Quadrangle Society Member Pauline Browes was named the Hamilton Township Senior of the Year and earlier in the year, was named the Provincial Senior of the Year.
- Senior Fellow Jillian Kohler received the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s Policy and Practice Impact Award for 2024.
- Alum Julian Posada is a 2024-2026 Just Tech Fellow.
- Junior Fellow Peter Serles was named a Grad to Watch by UofT Engineering.
- Visiting Scholar Alum Rita Shelton Deverell is the recipient of Nightwood Theatre’s annual Louise Garfield Scholarship, supported by Arts Etobicoke President’s Legacy Scholarship Fund. The prize is presented to an artist whose work has received development support as a ‘later in life’ emerging creator.
Congratulations everyone!
APPOINTMENTS
- Junior Fellow Apala Das will be joining Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey as Assistant Professor of English.
- Alum Shane Saunderson is joining McMaster University as an Assistant Professor in Information Systems.
- Senior Fellow Molly Shoichet was named the inaugural Pamela and Paul Austin Chair in Precision and Regenerative Medicine. Read more here.
- Junior Fellow Christine Tran began as Assistant Professor LTA, Digitial Media and Game Studies in University of Toronto Mississauga’s Department of English & Drama for 2024-25.
Best wishes in your new endeavours!
NEWS
- Senior Fellow Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union 50 years ago. Read his story and that of the Massey College community members (Master emeritus John Fraser and Quadrangle Society Member Nalini Stewart) who helped him. You can see John Fraser’s recollection of the event in a recent Globe & Mail article, (with a nice connection to Massey College at the end). The Toronto Star also covered it.
- Senior Fellow Randy Boyagoda discussed his new book Little Sanctuary on CBC Radio.
- Senior Fellow Mel Cappe comments on the UK Election on CTV.
- Senior Fellow The Honourable Jean Charest joined the Rideau Hall Foundation Board of Directors.
- Alum Jack Cunningham’s latest OpEd Debating War and Peace: Protest vs. Coercion in Open Canada.
- Senior Fellow Raywat Deonandan co-authored an OpEd on expanding wastewater testing for diseases in the Ottawa Citizen.
- Senior Fellow Lawrence Hill was quoted in The Star about the renaming of a Toronto Library in honour of his late father.
- Alum Milan Ilnyckyj gave a talk about climate change and energy at CITA. Watch here.
- Senior Fellow Sarah Kaplan wrote an OpEd about her findings regarding LGBTQ+ corporate directors in Canada in the Globe and Mail. She was also quoted about a trending 2SLGBTQ+ characters disappearing from TV in CBC.
- Senior Fellow Bruce Kidd was quoted on gambling ads targeting youth in The Star.
- UofT’s Institute for Aerospace Studies interviewed Junior Fellow and Don of Hall Alec Krawcic for his achievement as a Vanier Scholar. Read here.
- Senior Fellow Allison McGeer was quoted in CBC about vaccinations to stop spread of disease.
- Quadrangle Society Member Ceta Ramkhalawansingh wrote an OpEd in The Star on being on the committee to rename Dundas Square.
- Senior Fellow Shoshanna Saxe was quoted in The Narwhal about carbon-neutral homes and developers.
- Senior Fellow Barbara Sherwood Lollar was interviewed in the New York Times “The mysterious deep dwelling microbes that sculpt our planet.”
- Junior Fellow Christine Tran co-founded Content Creator Scholars Network, a new research network for scholars examining the creator economy. In collaboration with Microsoft Research New England, CCSN released their first group publication: Generative AI and the Creator Economy: A Research Agenda a resource from their workshop as a series of provocations about the role of AI in digital content creation – for anyone working in tech, society & creative studies!
- Watch Senior Fellow Armine Yalnizyan talk about the care economy on BNN.
Keep sharing your good news and have a good week,
Jonathan
P.S. We continue to develop programming for the fall term. In case you missed it, here is the look ahead for 2024-2025 programming.
P.S. Ondaatje Hall continues to be open for lunch until Friday August 2. Come visit and bring a friend for a meal.
