New Collaboration for Dr. Faraoni
Dr. Valerio Faraoni in the Department of Physics has joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo as a long distance affiliate. The Institute is a basic research centre dedicated to exploring the world around us at its most fundamental level. This world-class institute was established in the summer of 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research in Motion and the innovator behind the smart phone revolution, to help foster research and innovation in the field of theoretical physics. Thanks to this affiliation, Dr. Faraoni will be involved in the Institute’s research activities, play a role in strengthening the Canadian physics research community, and will receive support to visit the Perimeter Institute and interact with its members.
May 2012
Bishop’s Research and Creativity Award 2012
Dr. Andrew MacDonald of the Music Department received the 2012 Bishop’s University Research and Creativity Award in recognition of his important contribution to the field of contemporary music. Dr. MacDonald is a highly accomplished guitarist, composer, conductor and music educator who has been awarded numerous grants, prizes and distinctions over the years. Dr. MacDonald has won several popular prizes for his works: among them are the 1995 Juno Award for Best Classical Composition for his Violin Concerto as well as the 2005 East Coast Music Award and the 2005 Independent Music Award for Jasper Wood’s recording of Great Square of Pegasus. He has worked in collaboration with musicians and music organizations in Quebec, Canada and around the world, and many of his works were commissioned by outstanding orchestras, chamber ensembles, and solo performers. His compositions have been performed in several countries including England, Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, the United States and Australia. Dr. MacDonald has composed for all the major musical forces including symphony, concerto, opera, chamber, solo instrument, chorus, solo song, electro-acoustics, and jazz combo. His latest work is a full-length opera entitled Mary's Wedding which was recently premiered by Pacific Opera Victoria and will be broadcast on the CBC radio program Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on June 16. May 2012 |
Andrew MacDonald, Professor of Music and Steve Harvey, Associate Vice-Principal of Research |
New Publication on Elizabeth Hamilton
Dr. Claire Grogan in the Department of English has published a new book entitled Politics and Genre in the Works of Elizabeth Hamilton, 1756-1816. Published by Ashgate, the monograph is the first book-length study of this well-respected and popular British woman writer. Dr. Grogan addresses a significant gap in scholarship that enlarges and complicates critical understanding of Hamilton’s work. From 1797 to 1818, Hamilton published in a wide range of genres, including novels, satires, historical and educational treatises, and historical biography. Because she wrote from a politically centrist position during a revolutionary age, Hamilton has been neglected in favour of authors who fit within the Jacobin/anti-Jacobin framework used to situate women writers from the period. With Hamilton serving as her case study, Dr. Grogan demonstrates that women writers participated in the revolutionary debate through different means.
May 2012
SPECIAL ISSUE OF JETS ON BISHOP’S RESEARCH CLUSTERS
The Eastern Townships Resource Centre has recently published a special issue of the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies focusing on Bishop’s four research clusters. These interdepartmental research units are:
- Crossing Borders: Social and Cultural Difference
- Multi-scale Climate and Environmental Change
- Psychological Health and Well-being
- Stellar Astrophysics and General Relativity
Four leading researchers, each linked to one of the clusters, have written articles to present their cluster’s objectives, goals, research themes and members while articulating its relevance to the community at large. Two articles by Elisabeth Levac and Estelle Chamoux illustrate the types of projects to be conducted within the clusters.
Other articles on Sherbrooke residential architecture, Eastern Townships MLAs, municipal politics in Ascot Township, and women’s groups are featured.
For more information, please consult the ETRC website at:
http://www.etrc.ca/knowledge-transfer/jets.html.
January 2012
Dr. Susan Reid publishes on Innovation and Product Development
Dr. Susan Reid in the Williams School of Business has recently published two articles:
- With Ulrike de Brentani, The Fuzzy Front-End of Discontinuous Innovation: Insights for Research and Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management 2012, 29(1), 70-87.
- With Deborah L. Roberts, Technology Vision: a Scale Development, R&D Management, 2011, 41(5), 427-442.
December 2011
New infrastructure grant for Dr. Allili and Dr. Bentabet
Dr. Madjid Allili and Dr. Layachi Bentabet in Computer Science have recently been awarded $151,792 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation du Québec to acquire a laser ranging system that will allow measuring rapidly positions of physical objects and facilitate the production of 3D data at very precise level of detail. The processing of these data will lead to viable solutions for modeling environments, forecasting urban planning and mapping infrastructure.
December 2011
Dr. Bardati presents on mobilizing communities in the face of climate change
On November 24-25, Dr. Darren Bardati in the Department of Environmental and Geography participated in the annual meeting of The Coastal Communities Challenges – Community University Research Alliance (CCC-CURA) in Quebec City, to discuss with coastal community representatives of Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island on issues related to climate change in their communities. The Coastal Communities Challenges - Community University Research Alliance is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
December 2011
NEW NSERC GRANTS
Dr. Valerio Faraoni of the Department of Physics has been awarded a five-year Discovery Grant in the amount of $195,000. His project entitled Beyond Einstein: Alternative theories of gravity and cosmology and a meta-theory of gravitational theories explores cosmic acceleration, inhomogeneous spacetimes and dark energy. The cause of the cosmic acceleration is a major puzzle of fundamental physics, according to Dr. Faraoni. Perhaps the rules of General Relatively need to be modified, in order to better understand this acceleration. In response, Dr. Faraoni’s research explores a large class of gravitational theories with attention to their cosmology, comparison with local experiments, stability, and other criteria that a theory must meet in order to be acceptable.
Dr. Matthew Peros, a new faculty member who joined the Department of Environmental Studies and Geography this summer, will spend the next five years studying long-term variability in Atlantic hurricane activity thanks to a Discovery Grant of $90,000. The geographic focus of his research is Cuba, which has the longest coastline of any island in the Caribbean and is frequently affected by hurricane activity. His work will help shed light on the factors that influence natural variability in hurricane activity, and will improve our understanding of which regions will be most at risk from future hurricane impacts. The project will also provide essential information on hurricane return period, and is therefore relevant to Canada as Atlantic hurricanes frequently impact Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. This NSERC funded project builds upon Dr. Peros’ M.Sc. and Ph.D. research projects which were also undertaken in Cuba and on a more recent project funded by the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Climate Change Research. The scientific and governmental collaborations he developed and the knowledge that he gained about the physical environments of the region will be indispensable at facilitating his continuing work on the island.
September 2011
NEW SSHRC GRANTS
Dr. Cristian Berco of the History Department has been granted a two-year Standard Research Grant of $40,000 for his project entitled: Bodies of difference: Women, sorcery, and society in early modern Spain. This project will specifically examine female sorcerers of early modern Spain in the context of broader concepts of social difference. Dr. Berco will analyze inquisitorial sorcery trials against women using notarial sources, local materials and contextual literature. His research will focus on the multiple interpretations of the female body and how they shaped both deviance and broader social differences such as gender, race and status.
Dr. Don Dombowsky of the Political Studies Department has been granted a two-year Standard Research Grant of $18,817 for his project entitled: Nietzsche as Bonapartist. The main focus of this program of research is to establish a definitive and comprehensively demonstrated link between the political thought of Nietzsche, Napoleon and the Bonapartists of the later 19th-century. This project will provide a contribution to the understanding of the post-Enlightenment politics of Friedrich Nietzsche and of the dynamics in 19th-century political thought that generated authoritarian and fascist solutions in the 20th century.
Dr. Corinne Haigh from the School of Education has been granted a two-year Insight Development Grant of $70,228 for her project entitled: Individual differences in second language reading acquisition: A longitudinal study of English-speaking students in French immersion programs. Results from this project will offer educators, policy makers, and parents a better understanding of the profiles of strength and need exhibited by children at-risk for reading difficulty in immersion programs and will allow schools to make more informed judgments on such matters.
Dr. Matthew Peros of the Environmental Studies and Geography Department has been granted a Standard Research Grant of $98,650 as a co-researcher for a project entitled: Guanahatabey and Taino heritage: Biological and cultural landscapes of indigenous people in pre- and post-contact Cuba. In 1492, when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, he encountered the indigenous people of the Taíno culture. Due to the recent political landscape of Cuba, many questions pertaining to the Taíno themselves, the populations that preceded them, and those with whom they interacted, remain unresolved. The focus of the project will be at the archaeological site of Canimar Abajo where the research team will examine the origins and migrations of the Taíno people as well as their food procurement practices, demography, social organization, and ritual behaviour.
Dr. Jessica Riddell of the English Department has been granted a two-year Insight Development Grant of $46,360 for her project entitled: Gender, Genre, and Crisis in Elizabethan Performance. She argues that the coronation of Elizabeth disrupted the gender-role template causing a “masculinity identity crisis.” Her study theorizes that Elizabethan courtly drama provides especially well documented intersections between politics, performance, and power as well as showing strong correlations to contemporary culture and media.
September 2011
Award Winning Article
Dr. Gordon Barker of the History Department was recently selected the 2010 winner of the William M. E. Rachal Award. This annual award is designed to recognize the best article appearing in the quarterly journal, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Members of the editorial board select an article that “has best advanced the cause of scholarship in Virginia history.” William M. E. Rachal was the editor of the Virginia Historical Society’s journal from 1953-1980.
Dr. Barker is the first Canadian to have won this award, since its inception in 1985. The winning article is entitled: "Secession and Slavery as a Positive Good: The Impact of the Anthony Burns Drama in Boston on Virginia” which became a chapter in Barker’s book entitled: The Imperfect Revolution: Anthony Burns and the Landscape of Race in Antebellum America (Kent State University Press). A copy of the article abstract can be found at the following link: http://www.vahistorical.org/publications/abstract_barker_burns.htm.
July 2011
New Publication on Education in Quebec
Dr. Avril Aitken of the School of Education was among the 29 professors who collaborated on a project, entitled: Manifeste pour une école compétente. The manifesto was published in book form by the Presses de l’Université du Québec. The collaborating professors represent all of the twelve universities in Quebec, both English and French. The goal of the manifesto is to encourage debate regarding education policy and governance in the province. For more information, please visit the publisher’s website.
April 2011
Dr. Lorne Nelson received Bishop’s Research and Creativity Award
On March 30, 2011 Dr. Lorne Nelson of the Physics Department received the first Bishop’s University Research and Creativity Award in recognition of his impressive research record. Throughout his career Dr. Nelson has received research and infrastructure grants totaling well over two million dollars, including those from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and NASA. Dr. Nelson was also the holder of a prestigious Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Astrophysics from 2002 to 2009, a first ever for Bishops. These grants and the awarding of a CRC have funded his important work in two closely related areas of astrophysics: [1] Brown Dwarfs and [2] Interactive Binary Systems. Dr. Nelson’s work in both of these areas has generated international attention from both the scientific and lay communities. His work has appeared in the top international publications of his field and he has on numerous occasions been featured in the print media and on radio. Dr. Nelson’s dedication to both teaching and research at the highest levels will be an inspiration to all his colleagues.
Dr. Steve Harvey, Dr. Lorne Nelson, Mr. Michael Goldbloom
Photo: Maxime Picard
April 2011
New Edition of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man
Dr. Claire Grogan of the English Department has published a comprehensively annotated edition of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man at Broadview Press. Paine’s political treatise, written in the late 18th century, is arguably one of the most influential upon modern political thought. It discusses equality, hereditary governments, and social responsibility in the landscape of the French Revolution. “This edition situates Rights of Man within the discussion of the French Revolution in Britain and enables readers to understand the broader political debates of the 1790s.”
February 2011
Our Environment in Perspective
Dr. Thomas Fletcher and his colleague, Dr. Charles Harper from Creighton University have recently published Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues at Pearson Canada. This book focuses on the causes of environmental problems from a social science perspective. Contributing factors such as human behaviour, culture, and social institutions are studied. Also, the book examines changes that are being made to better support a “sustainable” society in regards to the human-environment relationship.
February 2011
Dr. Bacon co-publishes in Psychological Science
The article, entitled “Early- and late-onset blindness both curb audiotactile integration on the parchment-skin illusion”, was written in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Montreal and McGill. The paper demonstrates that without normal vision, what we hear and what we touch do not link well together in our minds. This has profound implications for our understanding of how the various senses are combined to produce our perception of a unified reality. With an acceptance rate of 14% and an Impact Factor of 5.09, Psychological Science is the highest-ranked empirical Psychology journal in the world. The full paper can be found at: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/22/1/19.full.pdf+html
January 2011
Jean Monnet, Canada, and post-war Europe
Dr. Trygve Ugland’s book, entitled Jean Monnet and Canada: Early Travels and the Idea of European Unity has been published at University of Toronto Press. This publication explores the influence of Monnet’s Canadian voyages on his later political achievements with European Unity. Monnet traveled extensively within Canada between 1907 and 1914 as a salesman for his father’s French brandy company.
January 2011
