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From hustling to health

by Noah Vaton on

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One evening this past semester, my roommates and I were discussing the McGill mascot, Marty the Martlet. Although we knew what Marty looked like, none of us had any idea what an actual martlet was. After some research, we discovered that our beloved mascot is based on an ancient mythological bird––with no feet. From the second the martlet enters the world, it is in perpetual flight until the last flap of its wings. 

Suddenly, we had a revelation; Marty the Martlet wasn’t so far fetched after all. A bird that can never take a break from flying, which must continuously flap its wings to survive? I couldn’t think of a better creature to represent McGill students. 

It didn’t take me very long to sense the intense, competitive, hustle culture––I was exposed to it before I even arrived in Montreal. Soon after I accepted my offer at McGill, I joined the Facebook group for entering students to make some connections before arriving at university. Although the Facebook group’s purpose was to lessen the daunting stress of starting university just months ahead of me, it did the opposite. 

I was bombarded with introductions from hundreds of students. The idea was simple––to share a few fun facts about oneself. Yet even that simple prompt quickly became an incitement for competition. If the first student that posted spoke two languages, then by the time the tenth student posted, they spoke 10 languages and were the son of an important diplomat.

“There definitely is a hustle culture at McGill,” wrote Alisa Nosova, U3 Arts, in an email to //The McGill Tribune.// “Everyone is hustling to get the best opportunities, get into the most interesting classes, build relationships with professors that teach classes of 200+ students, and take on executive positions in clubs. It’s competitive out there.”

Nosova is no stranger to the rat race. After arriving at McGill, she did everything in her power to try and compete: She took on multiple executive positions, became involved with the Arts Undergraduate Society, and acquired a part-time job. It wasn’t long before Nosova’s mental health took a hit. “I felt so hopeless […], I felt I needed to make a Plan B for myself,” she said. After she realized that she had spread herself too thin, she decided to take a step back and focus on herself in her final year. As she put it, “I lost myself in the process of pampering my resume and chasing all the experience.”

Off the Board, Opinion

When nature nurtures

by Lily Cason on

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I spent this break wandering through the Shenandoah National Park, irresponsibly lost at points. With root systems and fungi speaking deep under the earth and leafless canopies suspended overhead, the woods enveloped me on all sides. I felt more at peace than I had in months. In nature, I feel a kind of insignificance, like I am an infinitesimal part of a whole. Time somehow simultaneously speeds up and slows to a crawl. 

I am not someone who just loses track of time. On the rare occasion that I do, feelings of guilt and panic often ensue. What have I let slip through the cracks? Why did I let myself waste so much time? My mind seeks data, control. One of the only things that can cut through the noise is being in nature. A switch flips, and suddenly, I am able to let go of the control I usually crave.

I am not alone in this experience. The science behind what makes nature so good for our mental health varies, but research affirms its profound impact. Even short periods in nature, like a walk through a park in the middle of a city, and visual depictions of nature can have a positive impact on one’s mental health and cognition. Furthermore, research links increased time in nature to greater respect for the natural world and our fellow earthlings. 

One explanation for the impact that nature has on me, and others, is the biophilia hypothesis; based largely on qualitative data, it suggests that humans have an innate, genetic connection and draw to the natural world. I find this notion—a sort of vital link to nature which we often assume exists in other animals but not in ourselves—incredibly beautiful. It defies speciesism and unites us with the rest of the animal kingdom.

All of this begs the question: If nature helps and heals us, why do we tear it down? Humans have, by and large, let our relationship with nature become corrupt. We see the earth and our fellow inhabitants on it as tools at our disposal for expanding, uprooting, and containing. We take until there is nothing left to take, and refuse to stop a moment sooner. 

My mind immediately goes to TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink (CGL) Pipeline currently being built through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory with strong backing from the Canadian government. This project is egregious on numerous grounds: It threatens Indigenous sovereignty, harms the land and surrounding ecosystems, and exposes the hypocrisy of the supposedly climate-conscious, liberal Canadian government all in one fell swoop. 

There are plenty more examples of extractivism, a practice often intertwined with the brutal and ongoing legacies of colonialism. Indigenous communities have long stood against this practice, recognizing the importance of treating the land and animals with respect and dignity and staunchly advocating for environmental protection measures. Wet’suwet’en land defenders, for example, have set up checkpoints and are bravely fighting, despite a brutal, militarized response from the RCMP, to stave off the CGL pipeline. Others have taken to the courts and streets in protest.

Those who subscribe to the biophilia hypothesis, like renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson, have long argued for its role in conservation efforts. A renewed emphasis on the human-nature connection and the non-material, sustainable, well-being that we can derive from nature—even in an age rife with technological innovation—might help combat extractivist tendencies. 

Admittedly, my relationship with nature is also a greedy one. I use it as a crutch to cope with my anxiety and still fall into the all-too-easy trap of taking it for granted at times. But I like to think I’ve fostered a symbiotic relationship with my corner of the world: It will soothe me, and I’ll respect and defend it. 

I can’t imagine anyone standing amongst the trees as I did over break—feeling tiny, immensely content, and grateful—and not taking issue with the havoc we wreak on the natural world. So I argue for a relationship to the natural world that is founded in reciprocity and inspires respect, awe, and creativity, rather than neglect and abuse. 

McGill, News

Social Work Student Association votes to strike until February 25

by Tess Pilkington on

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After the McGill administration denied the School of Social Work’s decision to independently hold classes remotely until at least Feb. 25, the Social Work Student Association (SWSA) held a General Assembly (GA) on Jan. 17 to discuss the possibility of a strike. The motion to strike was successfully passed, with 70 in favour, three against, and two abstaining. The SWSA had previously detailed their concerns in an open letter to the McGill Administration before the GA and vote occurred.

The strike is set to run until Feb. 25, when another GA will be convened to vote on whether it should continue past March 4. Students will strike from School of Social Work classes held in person for the duration of the strike. However, they will continue to attend field internships and are encouraged to attend those courses held online. The SWSA will end the strike if McGill grants the School of Social Work full independence in choosing how and when its students return to in-person learning.

Students at the GA, such as Jo Roy, U3 Social Work, felt that the SWSA’s decision to strike was in line with the ethos of social work.

“[Social work] is very much a helping profession and one that cares about people and the ethics of it are very much in tandem with what we just did,” Roy said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Codey Martin, U3 Social Work, echoed Roy’s sentiments, noting that approving the motion to strike was an effort to apply the principles of social work in real life. 

“It’s the basic fundamentals of the social work program that we are currently learning, […] to put all the course content material learnt in the three-year degree into practice,” Martin said. “It comes down to supporting one another.”

Alyssa Salaciak, U2 Social Work and the internal affairs coordinator at SWSA, was the chairperson for the GA. With the strike in motion, Salaciak is tasked with supporting social work students by holding Zoom meetings for students to voice any concerns or offer points of advice to one another. 

“Now that we have agreed to strike, what does that mean for [SWSA]?” Salaciak said. “[It means] supporting students as they do it because it’s quite scary […] We’re here for you. We’re here for each other.”

Hannah Kirk, U3 Social Work, has an internship working with elders and older people living in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Like other social work students, Kirk is concerned about the risk of contracting COVID-19 in in-person classes and spreading it to the Indigenous communities with whom she interacts.

“The implications of me, as a white person, going to a class of 40 people, contracting COVID-19, and going on reserve and spreading it are really heavy, and McGill is responsible for that,” Kirk said. “When it comes to actually making decisions that protect the Indigenous community […] they don’t care.”

The SWSA is not the only students’ association at McGill pushing for school-specific autonomy in regards to remote learning. The Education Graduate Students’ Society (EGSS) announced a strike vote on Jan. 19. The Law Student Association will hold a Special General Meeting on Jan. 28 to discuss student concerns and the possibility of a strike.

According to Martin, the motion to strike is just the beginning of a greater movement for the SWSA. 

“I think it’s going to build momentum and people are going to start to really start to voice their concern and speak for a better understanding of the situation that McGill and other institutions are putting people in,” Martin said. “As much as I want to be in person, I’d love to be in-person, but unfortunately in the last 21 months of not contracting a virus, I kind of want to keep it that way.”

Arts & Entertainment, Pop Rhetoric

‘Degrassi’ keeps it real, for better or worse

by Michelle Siegel on

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If something happened at your high school, it probably also happened on Degrassi. Although the show’s “classic” era ended with Degrassi High in 1992, the Next Generation series surpassed it both in length and popularity. This was largely due to the show’s memorable cast: Toronto rapper Drake and actress Nina Dobrev both appeared as main cast members before finding considerable fame elsewhere. Most of the actors were the same age as their characters, bringing an authenticity to their onscreen awkwardness and growth. However, it is clear that many of the actors were relatively inexperienced, with scenes bringing the audience to tears from ridiculing laughter rather than powerful performances.

The long-running teen drama franchise, set and produced in and around Toronto, began with The Kids of Degrassi Street, which ran from 1979 to 1982. Its successor, Degrassi Junior High, began airing in 1987 and was directly followed by Degrassi High in 1989. The series officially concluded in 1992 and wasn’t revived until 2001, when Degrassi: The Next Generation premiered. The show was briefly continued as Degrassi: Next Class on Netflix from 2016-2017, with a new reboot of the show set to hit HBO Max in 2023. With the next iteration of the franchise imminent, it’s worthwhile to examine the impact that the show had on the television industry and beyond. 

Degrassi: The Next Generation stood apart from other teen shows for its procedural format and more grounded approach to portraying teenagers. By depicting nuanced emotional conflicts and social situations, Degrassi solidified its reputation as a show that wasn’t afraid to touch on darker or more controversial subjects. While Dawson’s Creek and other American shows featured older actors with exaggerated plots and questionable realism, Degrassi: The Next Generation was entertaining without needing excessive stylization. 

When I first encountered the show, it seemed drastically different than anything I’d seen before, especially since it was airing on TeenNick, the teen-aimed, mature Nickelodeon programming block that I never actually felt cool enough to watch. Degrassi: The Next Generation began airing music video promos in season 10, establishing the sustained appeal of the franchise and enticing new viewers. Several episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation generated major attention for how they handled mature subject matters: “Accidents Will Happen” from season three, for instance, focussed on Manny (Cassie Steele) having an abortion after getting pregnant at the age of 14. American network The N refused to air the episodes, which only became available in the United States in 2006, two years after their initial release in Canada. While the U.S. clung to shiny, happy-go-lucky teen programming, Canada wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. In season 10, Adam Torres (Jordan Todosey) was introduced, becoming one of the first transgender characters on scripted Canadian television. Degrassi High: School’s Out!, a television film that served as the finale for Degrassi High, even featured the first use of the word “fuck” on Canadian primetime television. 

Degrassi has always been relatively self-contained, which has led to the creation of many memes and jokes in the years since it went off-air. Despite the questionable fashion, gritty acting, and excessive school bands on the shows over the years, the series’ realism has allowed it to endure longer than other teen-oriented shows such as Riverdale. While the lengthy duration of The Next Generation forced certain plots to get recycled—like teen pregnancy, car crashes, makeovers, and fights—they never became trivialized or glamourized. Unlike other soulless reboots, reviving Degrassi feels loyal to the trajectory of the franchise. The show’s theme song rings true: Whatever it takes, Degrassi will make it through. 

Arts & Entertainment, Pop Rhetoric

Where do I begin: NFTs

by Charlotte Hayes on

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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the new year’s craziest phenomenon and strangest mystery. Following in the footsteps of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments, these tokenized digital commodities have taken the internet by storm. NFTs allow collectors to own original pieces of artwork in the digital form. What started as a way for artists to sell the rights to their work has evolved into a bustling marketplace for status symbols and Twitter profile pictures. The question remains: Are NFTs the next evolution of art dealerships or nothing more than a passing collection craze?

An object or asset is fungible if its owner can trade it for another object of equal value, such as money or Air Miles. Both physical and digital assets can be fungible. In art markets, collectors buy and sell paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts, but do not exchange or trade them. Art is therefore non-fungible; NFTs bring this phenomenon onto the internet. An NFT is a digital “token,” or object, that can only be purchased with cryptocurrency. Whereas bitcoin or other forms of crypto are fungible, NFTs are publicly verifiable assets authenticated on the blockchain. When an NFT is designated as a token on the blockchain, it can be sold like a tangible piece of artwork. In other words, NFTs are the digital public ledger of cryptocurrency. What sets NFTs apart from other forms of digital art ownership or copyright is the tokenization of each asset. This helps prevent fraud by publicly publishing the ownership of these commodities.

On the one hand, NFTs allow artists to profit from the sales of one-of-a-kind digital works, including paintings, videos, and music—much like painters do with physical pieces.  However, tech millionaires, hip-hop artists, and other celebrities have latched onto NFTs as the newest way to gaudily display their wealth. For example, popular digital artist Bored Ape Yacht Club has garnered over $1 billion in sales since its May 2021 launch, selling unique cartoons of apes valued as high as $3.4 million. Although some artists treat NFTs as another way to financially thrive off of selling their creations, others do very little in the way of fostering creativity, favouring profit. NFTs differ from other art purchasing sites, such as Etsy, in that the buyer doesn’t just own a copy of the digital art, but the rights to that particular digital image. Many NFTs posted to digital marketplaces like OpenSea are frauds, simply screen captures of an image with no accompanying proof of ownership. Social media users and celebrities alike have flocked to Bored Ape Yacht Club, displaying their NFTs as social media profile pictures. Recently, Twitter began a pilot program allowing users to upload not just a photo, but the verified copy of an NFT to set as their profile picture on Twitter, which will appear as a hexagonal icon to indicate its authenticity. Instead of having the owner of an entity simply screengrab the image of the digital token and upload it to their profile, they would be able to upload the token onto Twitter and prove their ownership of the NFT.

Theoretically, NFTs seem like a fair way to give artists the privilege to distribute content online in a profitable, trustworthy way. However, due to the common lack of originality and authenticity in the art, as well as the abrupt spike in interest, NFTs resemble more of a fad rather than industry-altering technology. Relying solely on consumer-generated excitement and often lacking the depth or complexity that grants artistic works their timelessness, NFTs possess little long-term value. Instead, they offer the possibility of exorbitantly displaying wealth as one would with streetwear or excessive jewelry—only online. At the end of the day, many NFT sales are less about art quality and more about brand names and showing off one’s money.

Student Life

Know your neighbourhood: The hidden histories of Montreal boroughs

by Wendy Zhao, Holly Wethey on

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Living in Montreal is exciting––discovering each of the city’s neighbourhoods is like peeling back another layer of a metropolitan onion. And while there are over 180 000 students in Montreal, amidst our own categorizations of the city’s various boroughs––e.g. art girls with stick and poke tattoos live in the Plateau, frat boys reside in Milton Park––it can be easy to forget that beneath each of these areas lies a rich history, one that has existed long before the arrival of students. The McGill Tribune sheds light on some of the communities and histories that continue to make Montreal neighbourhoods what they are today.

  1. Plateau

The borough that we know today as the Plateau dates back to the late 18th century, when it was made up mostly of farmland. Eventually, in 1845, village-style homes began to appear, followed by duplexes and triplexes. The Plateau, however, only got its name in the 1930s: Some claim it came from a local newspaper referring to the broad terrace at the base of Mont-Royal, others claim it was a bus-driver stopping at a school called “Le Plateau” who would shout out the name upon arrival. While students see the area as an artsy place to live, the Plateau has been home to different populations for years. Among these are a Jewish community, French immigrants, and a large Portuguese population who arrived in the 1950s. 

  1. Mile-End

Just north of the Plateau lies the Mile End, a neighbourhood that is home to the iconic Jean Talon Market, Fairmount Bagel, and Cafe Olimpico—known for its signature affogato. This borough also includes “Little Italy,” or Piccola Italia in Italian, which received its name from a wave of Italian immigration in the early 20th century. Those in the neighbourhood can pay a visit to Parc Dante, which has an open-air cinema in the summer, or try one of the many pizza restaurants in the neighbourhood. In addition to Italian immigrants, the Mile End is home to a large Jewish population and was once Montreal’s most Jewish neighbourhood. There is also a Greek community who arrived after World War II and settled around Park Avenue, resulting in the area being called “Little Athens,” though many Greek residents have now moved away, along with many others who cannot afford the rising rent prices in the area. 

  1. Milton Park

Milton Park has seen a radical transformation from its initial formation at the turn of century as a neighbourhood for wealthier families. As its iconic Victorian row houses were transformed into apartments, the city-central, low-rent housing attracted a cosmopolitan community, including McGill students and professors as well as immigrant families. In the 1960s, the quarter became home to a bustling local arts and counterculture scene: Big names in the era’s rock, folk, and jazz scenes graced venues, cafes, and record stores on Park Ave and Milton Street, including singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Muddy Waters. However, many of these beloved local gathering spots were only open for a few years, soon subject to increasing gentrification. In 1968, residents formed the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee to resist real-estate developers plotting to turn most of the neighborhood’s historic buildings into high-rise condos and commercial units. Through community demonstration, activists successfully gained a land trust and would go on to establish the largest cooperative housing project in North America.  

  1. Quartier des Spectacles

In 1865, the Gesù theatre, the neighbourhood’s first cultural organization, opened its doors. Other theatres followed, opening alongside cabarets and jazz clubs. During the American Prohibition era, Montreal, now famous for its nightlife and vibrancy, became a cultural hot spot. In the coming years, professional theatre grew in popularity, along with the construction of the metro system, thrusting Montreal into a modern era. Eventually, Complexe Desjardins opened, and the area saw a rise in commercial activity. Quartier de Spectacles is also known as the Latin Quarter, a name which, unlike Little Italy and Little Athens, was inspired by the Quartier Latin in Paris. 

Science & Technology

How gene mutations affect vitamin B12 deficiency

by Maiuri Maheswaran on

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In recent years, vitamin supplements have become all the rage, with an increasing number of supplements claiming to clear your skin, promote hair growth, and even increase your IQ. Unrealistic advertisements aside, vitamins are in fact quite important. Our bodies need vitamins in small amounts to be able to grow and function properly. 

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is important for maintaining the body’s metabolism, forming red blood cells, and ensuring the proper functioning of the brain. Because the human body cannot make vitamin B12 on its own, we depend on foods, mainly animal products, to get this particular nutrient. Certain non-animal products, such as nutritional yeast and soy milk, have been fortified with vitamin B12. However, people who follow a plant-based diet are recommended to take vitamin B12 supplements to prevent cobalamin deficiency, which is characterized by feelings of weakness, tingling, smooth tongue, anemia, and sometimes memory loss. 

While such a deficiency can be reversed by vitamin B12 supplements, there are individuals for whom cobalamin supplementation is insufficient. These individuals have mutations in the genes that code for the proteins that help the body absorb or transport vitamin B12. There are currently 12 gene mutations that can lead to these inborn vitamin B12 diseases. However, the role of these genes is not well defined and thus are being studied by many researchers—one of whom is Dr. David Rosenblatt, a senior scientist in the Child Health and Human Development program at the MUHC Research Institute who has been treating patients with vitamin B12 deficiencies for over three decades. 

Rosenblatt and researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine recently published a study in Nature Communications that found that the most common type of vitamin B12 deficiency disease, clbC, is caused by a mutation in the gene Mmachc. clbC is a multisystem disease that appears in utero and can lead to growth restriction and intractable epilepsy. The Mmachc gene codes for a protein that binds cobalamin when it enters the cell. However, mutations in two other genes, Ronin and Hcfc1, also cause clbC-like disease, but with more severe symptoms. 

“The common clbC has more than 1,000 patients described from around the world,” Rosenblatt wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “For the rare forms that are modeled in this paper, there is only one Ronin patient and less than 20 Hcfc1 patients.”

The goal of the paper was to characterize the cobalamin disorders these gene mutations cause in greater detail by studying the function of Ronin and Hcfc1. To do this, the researchers studied the disease in a mouse model afflicted by the same gene mutations. The mice showed symptoms that are typically associated with vitamin B12 deficiency, including brain abnormalities and cardiac defects. However, the researchers also saw symptoms that were atypical of vitamin deficiency, such as craniofacial dysmorphia, or abnormal growth of the brain and facial features. This sign is typically seen in patients that have ribosomopathies—disorders where the ribosomes, the tiny machines of the cell that make proteins, are non-functional. 

To verify whether the craniofacial dysmorphia observed in the mice was a result of ribosomopathies, the authors examined protein expression in the mice. They observed that in the mice with both mutations, there was a decrease in the number of ribosomes, indicating ribosomopathy. These results show that the vitamin B12 deficiencies are much more complex than previously thought. 

“I think that there is still a great deal more that needs to be learned about the basic mechanisms in these diseases,” Rosenblatt wrote. “Knowing more about mechanisms can sometimes lead to targets for therapy.” 

Though it is too early to search for a cure, such studies are nevertheless a vital stepping stone toward understanding vitamin B12 deficiency diseases. 

Chill Thrills, Student Life

Sustainable projects for staying at home

by Jackie Lee on

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The end of January: Add/drop is over, winter break is but an amorphous memory, and outside is really, really cold. Instead of venturing into the frigid outdoors, try your hand at some sustainable projects to distract yourself from the gloom of 5 p.m. sunsets—all without ratcheting up your screen time or purchasing superfluous materials. 

Grow microgreens

Microgreens—nutrient-dense seedlings of plants or herbs—are often touted as exclusive to fine-dining menus or superfood listicles. But fear not: They are easy to grow at home. An ideal project for students who lack the time or resources necessary to garden, microgreens can inject some green into your home and diet during the bleak midwinter. Once packed with soil, the individual cups of an egg carton make snug homes for pre-soaked seeds. After three-ish weeks, simply harvest the newly grown shoots and start again. While at first you might baffle your roommates as your makeshift planters hoard sunny windowsill real estate, you’ll impress them with a dinner garnished with home-grown produce. 

Fold origami 

Don’t let the scribbled coursework of semesters past haunt you. Instead of chucking your old notes, try folding the scrap paper into creative creatures or bewildering beasts—origami dragons, anyone? Beginners can start with simpler patterns like cranes and stars, and eventually graduate to succulents, elephants or lanterns; the list goes on. Instructions-wise, YouTube is your friend: Video tutorials show each fold in 3D, and are often easier to follow than written steps. Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, the world is your (origami) oyster. Keep your hands busy while binging Netflix or rewatching lectures by folding butterflies or sparrows, which, when hung from a window frame, cast pretty, swaying shadows during golden hour. You could even try assembling a chess set with recycled cardstock as the board and tiny shapes as the pieces. 

Pen a letter (or many)

Tearing open an envelope to receive a thoughtful, heartfelt letter is a unique joy, a gift mutual to the writer and the receiver. Short notes can be just as novel as a dozen pages: Your family or friends will appreciate receiving a freshly stamped letter in the mail, even if it’s only a few lines. To save on expensive stationary, fold your own envelope from recycled paper, and hand-deliver your letters on campus or to their apartment. Severing an old greeting card in half yields a makeshift postcard from the front image while preserving the original message on the other. Tuck this, along with other goodies like tea bags, stickers, or even some origami, into a decorated envelope to add an extra-special touch. 

Reuse kitchen scraps

It can be difficult to conjure the hopeful optimism of spring, with all its burgeoning flower buds and delicate petrichor, during the current sub-zero temperatures. But you can summon the season early with some easy projects. Prepare for your balcony garden by planting bulbs indoors now so they are ready to transfer outside after the first thaw. For something more immediately gratifying, save the bottoms of green onions and place them in a shallow glass, making sure to submerge the roots in water. The onion will regrow quickly—just trim the tops and add to your meals. Turn a sprouted potato into a stamp by cutting it half and carving a simple design. Triage your houseplants to determine if they are nutrient deficient: If the soil lacks calcium, add crushed eggshells;  if it lacks nitrogen, add old coffee grounds or steeped tea. Just remember to carefully monitor the soil’s pH to ensure the plant thrives.

Build a birdfeeder

Help out your friendly feathered neighbours by providing them with high-calorie foods. Try crafting a bird feeder from recycled materials such as plastic bottles or hoary wooden spoons. Buy a brick of suet—rendered fat, essentially—and hang it in a suet feeder. You can make your own by melting leftover meat drippings with other ingredients like peanut butter, seeds, and dried berries. Pour the mixture into a muffin tray or container, place a loop of twine on the top, and pop it in the freezer to solidify. Hang the loops of twine on your balcony or in a tree and wait for hungry birds to flock. And if the squirrels end up devouring it first, well—they’re hungry too!

Science & Technology

ROAAr symposium delves into the complicated relationships between scientists

by Madison Edward-Wright on

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The science behind friendship and how it develops between people has been a longstanding object of study. However, much less research has looked into the friendships between scientists themselves. The Rare & Special Collections, Osler, Art, and Archives (ROAAr) branch of the McGill Library held a symposium on Jan. 20 to explore exactly that. 

Stopes and Hewitt: A correspondence for the ages

Laura Jean Cameron, professor of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University, first met Ingrid Birker, manager of the Public Program at McGill’s Redpath Museum, when she reached out to her in hopes of gaining access to part of the Redpath’s fossil collection. Cameron had requested access to some Fern Ledges fossils housed at Redpath. These fossils had a history: They were important items in the friendship between Charles Gordon Hewitt, an entomologist, and Marie Stopes, a palaeobotanist and suffragette. 

Hewitt was first Stopes’ student at the University of Manchester, where in 1904 he attended her lectures on palaeobotany, the study of fossilized plants. When Hewitt moved to Canada in 1909 to become dominion entomologist, he and Stopes continued to communicate through letters. The two connected over the newly emerging field of ecology, but their friendship also inspired many of Stopes’ feminist writings. 

“The success of their friendship was […] one of the important contributions she may have wished to make for science,” Cameron said during her presentation. “In her writing on behalf of women’s suffrage […] Stopes expressed her belief that a friendship of equality between men and women was not only possible, but was an evolutionary imperative.” 

While Birker and Cameron acknowledged the other friendships that Stopes and Hewitt had with problematic figures in Canada such as Duncan Campbell Scott, the notorious deputy superintendent general of Indian affairs, and Helen MacMurchy, a staunch promoter of eugenics, the presenters glossed over Stopes’ involvement in the eugenics movement. Stopes was a vigorous supporter of birth control and family planning, but primarily because she believed these to be key tools in the practice of eugenics—which, for her, meant selective breeding to preserve the white race. 

Penfield and Cone: Advancement of science but the end of a friendship

Borrowing from his research for a larger exposé published by The Globe and Mail, journalist Eric Andrew-Gee examined the once prosperous, but ultimately volatile friendship between Wilder Penfield and William Cone. 

Penfield and Cone began working together at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in 1924, where Penfield practiced surgery, primarily on the brain. When Penfield moved to Montreal in 1928 after being recruited by McGill University, he invited Cone to join him. The pair would eventually found the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (MNI) in 1934. 

“[Penfield and Cone] led a team together that made groundbreaking discoveries about memory, pleasure, anxiety, and learning,” Andrew-Gee explained. “They worked together in ‘double-harness,’ as they both liked to say, for 35 years.”

The friendship devolved, however, as Cone’s skills as a surgeon and dedication to the field of medicine surpassed Penfield’s, causing Penfield to grow jealous. Even worse, in 1953, Penfield was chosen over Cone for the directorship of the institute.

“By the 1950s, there were two camps at the [MNI],” Andrew-Gee said. “Cone’s people focussed on spinal surgery [while][…] Penfield’s focus[sed] on epilepsy.” 

Cone became extremely depressed not long after these events and eventually died by suicide in 1959, which greatly upset Penfield. Despite the tragic ending, Andrew-Gee concluded his talk by acknowledging the instrumental role friendship played in the lives of the two men and their scientific developments.

“Cone and Penfield had a deeply loving friendship, and together, sitting and talking over a microscope or the head of a patient, they helped give birth to the romantic mathematics of neuroscience,” Andrew-Gee said.

Science & Technology

A mother’s fight to bring an understanding of autism outside of the clinic

by Zoe Karkossa on

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From last century’s fears surrounding poor parenting to modern vaccine hesitancy, persistent misconceptions about the causes of autism have often resulted in the developmental condition being wrongfully associated with moral panic. During a recent talk hosted by McGill’s Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry for the Culture, Mind and Brain Program’s Speaker Series, Marga Vicedo, an associate professor at the University of Toronto studying the history of science, highlighted the story of one mother determined to understand her daughter’s experience with autism. 

Clara Park gave birth to Jessica, her third child, on July 20, 1958. After three years, Park realized that her daughter was different from the rest of her siblings. Seemingly uninterested in other children, Jessica was instead fascinated by numbers, art, and the aurora borealis.

As a stay-at-home mother, Park spent a great deal of time carefully observing her daughter and figuring out how to best support her, and was disappointed when her findings were dismissed by the child development experts she consulted. At the time, psychoanalysis would have interpreted  Park’s efforts to understand her daughter as evidence of refrigerator motherhood—an offensive term used to describe detached, uncaring mothers of autistic children.

“Rejecting the separation of thinking and feeling, Park aimed to show that objectivity and reason are not incompatible with love, and can be a valuable part of mothering,” Vicedo said. “[And] further, that intelligent love could be also a way to reach reliable knowledge.”

Despite the initial opposition, Park remained convinced that her efforts were not at odds with her mothering. She found fellowship in her beliefs through a correspondence with Bernard Rimland, a researcher who attributed autism to organic causes, and her collaboration with Marie Battle Singer, a psychoanalyst and fellow innovative thinker.

Contemporary clinical methods to treat autism were underdeveloped and prevalent therapies, including Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), were often criticized as cruel and ineffective. Park reworked such programs by identifying useful principles and tailoring them to the domestic sphere in a pragmatic way. Inspired by certain elements of ABA, Park collaborated with her daughter to develop a practical system for behaviour modification. Incorporating Jessica’s love for numbers, Park and Jessica assigned points to specific behaviours and tracked them using a golf counter.

“Jessica set her goals, chose her rewards, and agreed to the penalties,” Vicedo said. “Their program did not try to eliminate autistic behaviour such as rocking or flapping, but focussed on behaviour that Jessica said she wanted to change, because they made her feel anxious or interfered with other things she wanted to do.”

Park’s impact extended far beyond her household. She presented her knowledge in ///The Siege///, the most comprehensive account of raising an autistic child at the time and an invaluable resource to parents and therapists. She also brought together a large circle of mothers of autistic children who supported each other and corresponded at length.

This vibrant community met regularly at conferences and shared their experiences with each other, discovering important insights along the way. The children were also invited to speak at the gatherings to share their stories and perspectives once they were old enough.

Park was a dedicated proponent of the value of maternal insight and the fight against mother-blaming. She recognized the value of what she called the “deep knowledge of the child in context,” which refers to personalized catering to a child’s needs using observation of children in a wide variety of situations and a full understanding of their history. To Park, this lived maternal experience was a unique tool that did not undermine clinical methods, but complemented them.

“Park was not only questioning widespread notions of good mothering, but also challenging a central tenet in scientific epistemology,” Vicedo said.

Park harnessed both her love and her will in order to better understand her daughter. Her work remains a significant achievement that is deeply relevant to the current era of misinformation surrounding autism. Jessica has grown to be an accomplished artist.

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