APRIL 2013 Inside
Authors collaborate at joint events on Laurier’s campuses Alissa York and Andrew Westoll examine themes of human-animal connections By Mallory O’Brien
at public events in both Waterloo and Brantford in March. “One thing I took from Andrew’s book is that the humans who work [at Fauna Sanctuary] self-identify as people who would rather be around animals than humans,” said York. “What do you think it is that makes people want to create a sanctuary?” “You have to care about something else in your life to give your life meaning,” Westoll replied. York and Westoll continued their engaging dialogue at a
similar event in Brantford March 7. York, who visited Laurier between Feb. 25 and March 7, is the author of several books, including Effigy and the national bestseller, Fauna. Effigy was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Fauna was shortlisted for the 2011 Toronto Book award. York has also written award-winning short fiction, and her essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire and Eighteen Bridges. Westoll, whose Edna Staebler
writer-in-residence position concludes at the end of April, is a primatologist and an awardwinning narrative journalist. He is the author of The Riverbones and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, which won the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize. The book was also shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction and the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and named a book of the year by The Globe and Mail, Amazon.ca, Quill & Quire and CTV’s Canada AM.
Photos: Tomasz Adamski, Simon Wilson
During a public reading on March 6, authors Alyssa York and Andrew Westoll joked about the various fauna with which they were sharing Laurier’s Lucinda House property. “There’s a raccoon in the garage, squirrels, mice and a skunk, maybe?” said York. “There is definitely a skunk,” said Westoll with a laugh. The most recent books of both writers-in-residence share a theme of human-animal
connection. Westoll, who is the inaugural Edna Staebler Writerin-Residence, recounts his experiences at a chimp sanctuary in The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery. York, Laurier’s third-annual writer-in-residence following authors Lawrence Hill and Joseph Boyden, follows the people and animals inhabiting the Don Valley in Toronto in her novel Fauna. The authors discussed their human-animal themes and read from their award-winning books
Alissa York signs copies of her book after a public reading on Laurier’s Waterloo campus in early March. Andrew Westoll reads from his book at a joint event on the Brantford campus the following week.
people at Laurier
For a complete list of appointments visit www.wlu.ca/hr
New appointments: Gwen Bisset, administrative assistant, Dean of Arts (Waterloo campus). Jasmine Der, digital projects coordinator, Library (Waterloo campus). Allison Dias, project and administrative coordinator, Academic Services (Waterloo campus). Suzanne Gall, coordinator financial and biographical services, Advancement Services (Waterloo campus). Paul Gowling, project coordinator, Physical Resources (Waterloo campus).
Allan Keith, auditions and student services coordinator, Faculty of Music (Waterloo campus).
Mahmoud Reza Tadayon, database administrator, Enterprise Solutions (Waterloo campus).
Rachel Bessette, off-campus recruitment officer (Brantford campus).
Stephanie Giddings, financial and biographical assistant, University Development (Waterloo campus).
Shari Nemirovsky, manager, recruitment and admissions (non-secondary school), Recruitment & Admissions (Waterloo campus).
Michael Voisin, administrative assistant (Inside Out), Faculty of Social Work (Waterloo campus).
Louise Boulanger, recruiting assistant, Career Services (Waterloo campus).
Dennis Karn, custodian leadhand, Physical Resources (Waterloo campus).
Ursula Wolfe, program assistant (graduate programs), Faculty of Education (Waterloo campus).
Richard Brown, admissions specialist I, Office of the Registrar (Waterloo campus).
Taylor Marks, admissions coordinator, Recruitment & Admissions (Waterloo campus).
Changes in staff appointments:
Karen Cleaver, intermediate administrative assistant, SBE (Waterloo campus).
Ryan Pyear, national recruitment and admission coordinator, Recruitment & Admissions (Waterloo campus).
Jennifer Schill, info specialist: data entry, Registrar’s Office (Waterloo campus). Ian Schwartz, coordinator programs, Athletics & Recreation (Waterloo campus). Shwetha Subramanya, administrative and financial assistant, Seminary (Waterloo campus).
Michael Ackerman, disability consultant, Accessible Learning (Brantford campus). Mieke Barette, outreach and student recruitment coordinator, Faculty of Music (Waterloo campus).
Laura Davey, development assistant (SBE), Development (Waterloo campus). Martha Dewitte-Fairless, mail/file clerk, Registrar’s Office (Waterloo campus).
Tina Tellis, admissions specialist II, International Recruitment & Admissions (Waterloo campus).
Professors celebrate new books, including textbook on computational photonics Marek Wartak, a professor in Laurier’s Department of Physics and Computer Science, is the author of a newly published textbook, Computational Photonics An Introduction with MATLAB. The textbook — Wartak’s first — is intended to give students a comprehensive grounding in the operating principles of optical devices, as well as the models and numerical methods used to describe them. “I have delivered courses on this topic for many years, and originally I was going to focus the textbook on fibre-optic
communication. But over the last two years I realized it could be much broader,” said Wartak. The book discusses optical planar waveguides, linear optical fibre, the propagation of linear
pulses, laser diodes, optical amplifiers, optical receivers, finite-difference time-domain method, beam propagation method and some wavelength division devices, solitons, solar
cells and metamaterials. Peter Eglin, a professor in the Faculty of Arts, is the author of Intellectual Citizenship and the Problem of Incarnation (University Press of America). In the book, Eglin challenges himself and the reader to practice intellectual citizenship everywhere from the classroom to the university commons to the street. He argues the moral imperative to do so derives from the concept of incarnation. Here the idea of incarnation is removed from its Christian context and replaced with a political-economic interpre-
tation of the embodiment of exploited labour. Debra D. Chapman, an instructor in the Faculty of Arts, is the author of The Struggle for Mexico: State Corporatism and Popular Opposition (McFarland). The book examines the transformation of Mexico’s social and political organization from state corporatism to transnationalized corporatism, a form distinguished by the effect that International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organization have on the state’s relationship to the rest of society. 5