Archive: 2021

Queen’s University is partnering with Kenjgewin Teg to jointly develop and offer three new courses in Indigenous studies in January 2022.  

Kenjgewin Teg is an Indigenous-led educational institute at M'Chigeeng First Nation, on Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island). Queen’s has a long history of partnership with Kenjgewin Teg through the university’s community-based Indigenous Teacher Education program.

The international Karta Initiative provides access to university for promising students from rural India.

^{Sahana Nayaka and Akshay Desale are the first two students to join Queen's through the university's partnership with the Karta Initiative. (University Communications)}

Talented students are everywhere in the world, but, for many, a university experience is well out of reach.

Two Queen’s researchers are using artificial intelligence to anticipate cancer metastasis.

^{Dr. Amber Simpson (School of Computing; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) and Dr. Farhana Zulkernine (School of Computing) have leveraged the data scraping abilities of Natural Language Processing, applying the technology to CT scans to predict where cancer could spread. (Adobe Stock)}

As part of International Education Week, November 15-19, the Faculty of Arts and Science is taking the time to recognize its Connect program which provides prospective and incoming first year students the opportunity to connect one-on-one with a student ambassador to learn about their Queen’s experience and ask questions.

Dr. Jeffrey Brison is the recipient of this year’s Faculty of Arts and Science Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. The award honours faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to promoting graduate student excellence through teaching, supervision, and mentorship at the graduate level.

Two Queen’s experts in economics discuss natural experiments, labour markets, and what you can learn from watching alumnus David Card in action.

Nobel Prize winner and Queen's alumnus David Card is the Class of 1950 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. (Brittany Hosea-Small)

After 24 years with Wesley Clover, one of Canada’s leading private, global investment management firms and holding companies, Greg Vanclief has departed to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer at Elentra, one of the rising stars in the educational technology space, focused on providing a complete platform for health sciences education.

Photo credit: Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach 2021

Day of reflection to include a sacred fire gathering, campus-wide moment of silence, and educational opportunities. 

Faculty of Arts and Science Professor Will Kymlicka, Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy, has earned the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Pierre Chauveau Medal for his distinguished contribution to knowledge in the humanities other than Canadian literature and Canadian history.

Did you know that the Faculty of Arts and Science offers over 7,500 courses? Explore the breadth of courses offered in FAS and challenge yourself to step-out of your comfort zone during open enrolment. Branching out my lead you to meeting your next best-friend or discovering a passion for a topic such as paleontology, film, or astrology.  

Members of Canada's PowerHockey Team. (Photo Courtesy PowerHockey Canada

With the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games now underway, a leading researcher from Queen’s says it is time to reimagine what we think of an athlete, and to create opportunities for athletes of all body types and skill levels.

Four current PhD students at Queen’s have been named winners of the School of Graduate Studies’ Award in Leadership, Innovation, and Community Engagement.

Maram Assi (Computing), Martina Jakubchik-Paloheimo (Geography and Planning), Morgan Lehtinen (Chemistry), and Rohit Shukla (Civil Engineering), were selected for the award, which recognizes graduate students who are “making a meaningful difference in the world while also demonstrating the highest standards of academic excellence.” The award is valued at $5,000.

Admission award recognizes school and community leadership among underserved and underrepresented first-year students.

The Government of Ontario is providing $4.3 million in funding for four Queen’s research projects.

Thanks to a generous alumni donation, Queen’s University Archives is now the proud owner of the world’s largest collection of policy-making chronicles, opening the door for critical research by students on deliberation and the future of democracy.

The donation comes from Peter MacLeod, MA’02, founder and principal of MASS LBP, a company that conducts citizens’ assemblies.

^{Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship recipients (clockwise from top left): Ryan Kirkpatrick, Emmanuelle LeBlanc, Isabelle Grenier-Pleau, Shannon Clarke, Stephanie Woolridge, Saskia de Wildt, Maram Assi, and Hannah Hunter.}

Eight Queen’s University students, including five from the Faculty of Arts and Science, have earned Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, one of Canada’s most prestigious awards for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.

Statement from Queen’s University Principal Patrick Deane:

Hello, I am Patrick Deane, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University, here on the territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek. It is important to recognize this territory and its significance for the Indigenous Peoples who lived, and continue to live, upon it and to acknowledge that many of us, including myself, are guests and settlers on this land.

Trigger warning: the following statement contains references to recent disturbing news and the ongoing legacy of residential schools.

Monday, June 21st is National Indigenous Peoples Day; with 2021 marking the 25th anniversary of this recognition. What has changed for Indigenous peoples in Canada in the last 25 years? Alternatively, how has your own understanding and awareness of Indigenous peoples, their history, cultures, languages, treaties, etc. increased? 

The Queen’s community is remembering Kamila Lebel-Farrell, who passed away suddenly after collapsing while exercising outdoors on Wednesday, June 9.  Kamila was 19 years old. 

The Faculty of Arts and Science stands in solidarity with the statement made by the Queen’s University Human Rights and Equity Office (HREO) regarding the horrific killing of four members, and the severe injury of one member, of a Muslim family in London, Ontario, on June 06, 2021.

Six research projects at Queen’s have received funding from the New Frontiers in Research Fund’s (NFRF) 2020 Exploration competition, a program that encourages scholars to take risks, and that fosters discoveries and innovations that could have significant impacts on our world.

Faculty of Arts and Science researcher Sari van Anders has earned the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Program in Human Sexuality (PHS) inaugural Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary award.

This award was designed to complement the first 50 years of the PHS, an internationally renowned research institute led by some of the world’s foremost experts in understanding sexual and gender health.

The recipients of the 2020 and 2021 Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Awards have all stepped up during one of the most challenging periods for the Queen’s community.

Students are selected for their distinguished service to the university in non-athletic, extra-curricular activities, with the three tenets being service, leadership, character.

The 2021 and 2020 are both being recognized as last year’s awards were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After successfully developing and implementing a new graduate student initiative in 2018, Pre-doctoral Fellowships for Indigenous Students, and awarding it to a total of eight previous fellows, this year the Faculty of Arts and Science is expanding the program. It will now include three new Pre-doctoral Fellowships in Black Studies as well as three Pre-doctoral Fellowships for Indigenous Students.

The Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) is committed to supporting our people and building strong, healthy communities. Not only is supporting our people one of the four strategic priorities in our Strategic Plan, the need to build strong, healthy communities was amplified by the pandemic in the past year and a half.  Supporting our people and building healthy communities is reflected in many of the themes that emerged from our Town Halls, Community Assembly meetings, Dr.

Restore Our Earth is the call to action for Earth Day 2021 and a series of projects in buildings utilized by Faculty of Arts and Science researchers are putting the institution on the right path to achieve the goals outlined in the Queen’s Climate Action Plan including reducing greenhouse gas emissions 70 per cent by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2040.

Times Higher Education 2021 Impact Rankings illustrate Queen’s role in advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

As new technologies develop, designing them for human benefit can be a complex challenge. Neurotechnology, considered any tool used to measure, intervene on, or artificially stimulate brain function, is an emerging technology with extensive potential societal impact. It has already demonstrated advanced applications to help those with neurological disorders, while also attracting the eyes of Silicon Valley and those with interests in its surveillance and personal augmentation potential.

Bev King, Faculty of Arts and Science, has announced her retirement from the position of Assistant Dean, Teaching and Learning, effective today.

Bev started at Queen’s University in 1979 on her birthday, March 8, and she leaves behind an enormous legacy, putting the university on the map as a leader in online and distance education.

When campus shut down one year ago, the senior leadership team was faced with a daunting task. Along with switching the academic year to an online model and working with staff as they transitioned to working at home, there was the Queen’s University research community to consider as access to research spaces was shut down.

Faculty of Arts and Science doctoral student Alexandra Walters has been named a finalist for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholars (PETF) program. The Kinesiology and Health Studies student is one of only 36 candidates to be named as a finalist for the Scholarship and Engaged Leadership program. More than 600 applications from around the world were received for this honour.

Queen’s University researchers and partners are monitoring the health and movements of polar bears in an innovative approach to studying climate change in the Arctic.

In the fall of 2020 Dr. Wendy Craig (Psychology) began to probe the impact of Covid-19 on the Faculty of Arts and Science community. Through a series of ThoughtExchanges she gathered insights into the ways in which the pandemic was changing people’s lives and challenging the norms of just one year ago.

Choosing a program is one of the largest decisions students make during their time in university. Majors Night was created to help students ask questions and learn about each program in the Faculty of Arts and Science but due to the pandemic, organizers had to make a quick pivot and organize an online event.

The Queen’s University Writer in Residence Kaie Kellough, the Department of English, and the Faculty of Arts and Science are joining forces to present three unique events including a conversation with the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife.

The Government of Canada recently announced its investment of $118 million in funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) inaugural Alliance grants program. More than $6 million was secured by 12 Queen’s researchers, with four projects awarded more than $1 million each. Of the 20 projects that received more than $1 million, Queen’s and the University of Calgary tied for attracting the largest individual investments.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 is an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women working in science and the motivation they are providing for young women just beginning or in the early stages of their careers.

In a new study published in Nature Photonics, lead author Bhavin Shastri (Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) worked alongside an international team to examine how neuromorphic photonics, a field that uses light (instead of electronics) and neural “brain-like” networks, could improve the speed and efficiency of computing systems.   

The Faculty of Arts and Science is pleased to announce that Dr. William Nelson has been appointed Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) to commence July 1, 2021. Dr. Nelson is currently an Associate Professor in Biology. He has been involved with a number of curriculum and course design initiatives, including leading our Faculty’s largest multidisciplinary project to develop an introductory blended statistics course, both as an instructor and Undergraduate Chair.

The Queen’s School of Policy Studies is laying out strategies for building a better society in the wake of COVID-19 in a series of white papers

The Faculty of Arts and Science celebrates 166 student-athletes as all-stars

A total of 426 student-athletes have been named Academic All-Stars, including 166 from the Faculty of Arts and Science. These student-athletes have achieved an 80 per cent average (3.5 GPA) or above over the past academic year and compete on a varsity team or varsity club.

This is a record high number and places Queen’s among the top five schools in Canada for the number of Academic All-Stars.

The Queen’s community and the Faculty of Arts and Science is remembering Robert (Bob) Pike, a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology, who died Saturday, Jan. 9. He was 82.

Dr. Pike grew up in England and attended the London School of Economics, graduating with a BA in Economics and Sociology (1961), and then his master’s. He would then travel to Australia and earn the first-ever PhD in sociology from the Australian National University.

New guidelines provide opportunities for people to get healthy 24 hours a day

With COVID-19 posing many challenges to overall physical and mental health, it is more important than ever for people to have a clear understanding of what they can do throughout the day to stay healthy.