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Commentary, Opinion

Point-counterpoint: To be synchronous or asynchronous

by Michael Dickinson, Valentina de la Borbolla on

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The McGill Tribune Opinion section staff writers debate the merits of the synchronous versus asynchronous learning styles adopted during the pandemic.  

Michael Dickinson: Synchronous

COVID-19 has upended students’ university experiences, and without a normal routine, it is hard to stay motivated. Many students also feel socially isolated and miss the sense of community that in-person classes provided. Although they are an imperfect substitute, synchronous online courses are better than asynchronous alternatives because they replicate the structure and social engagement of in-person learning.

The comfort of an established routine is critical for mental health, and synchronous classes allow structure during a time of constant uncertainty. While it is easy to put off watching lecture recordings, students are less likely to procrastinate when material is delivered at a set time. When students plan their days around lectures, it creates a sense of purpose and motivation that online classes otherwise lack.

Live courses also grant students the opportunity to actively participate, developing a community atmosphere that cannot be found elsewhere in online education. In a synchronous format, students can ask professors questions in real time and discuss class concepts with their peers. While online conversations may be awkward at times, they are invaluable to students suffering from social isolation since they are the only way to foster the spontaneous interactions that make learning worthwhile and enjoyable.

Although live classes can present accessibility concerns for certain students, professors can adapt elements of their courses to give students a choice that they would not have in fully asynchronous classes. For example, McGill strongly encourages professors to record live lectures for students who cannot attend. Implementing select asynchronous elements within the synchronous format meets a variety of student needs.

Lecture recordings may be the better option for some, but there is no reason why they should be forced on all students. Even during a pandemic, the university experience should be more meaningful than watching videos, and synchronous virtual classes remain the best alternative to learning in person.

Valentina de la Borbolla: Asynchronous 

McGill encourages a combination of synchronous and asynchronous elements, for good reason. While in some ways valuable, the synchronous aspects of university classes remain constraining and unrealistic considering COVID-19 and how the pandemic has upended our lives.

Synchronous Zoom meetings where attendance is graded and only a handful of students participate do very little for student’s education and well-being. Although similar in format to recorded lectures, Zoom meetings do not allow for regular breaks and rewinding, which are both crucial to accommodate students’ attention spans, note-taking, and Zoom fatigue. In a Fall 2020 McGill survey, 79 per cent of respondents identified difficulty focussing as a challenge of online classes and 59 per cent of respondents struggled with time management. On the other hand, 64 per cent of respondents believe that pre-recorded lectures are serving them well. 

An asynchronous approach to online schooling gives students the option to work at their own pace. In a time where choice is bound by public safety, there is value in dictating your own schedule. Flexibility is key to living through a pandemic, and universities should give their students the time and resources to overcome the challenges of online schooling.

Although this much agency can lead to a lack of structure, the synchronous model is not much better. It is unreasonable to expect students––many of whom are currently in time zones different from Montreal––to bear the constraints of mandatory attendance and graded participation when these are not the most beneficial methods for online learning. Students living in different time zones should not have to choose between having enough sleep and receiving an education. The online format does not foster in-depth conversations, making it difficult to hold effective class discussions. Forcing interactions does not lead to active engagement, it only induces anxiety.

McGill should give up the notion that online school is equivalent to in-person learning and focus on reducing students’ misery. The only feasible system is one that allows students to adapt their class schedules to their mental health and other responsibilities, rather than imposing a structure that leaves them drained and frustrated. 

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Stephanie Dinkins revolutionizes fine art and artificial intelligence

by India Blaisdell on

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On March 17, transmedia artist Stephanie Dinkins presented her work at a virtual talk hosted by the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technologies speaker series. Dinkins, a professor at Stony Brook University in New York, spoke on how her art questions the place of artificial intelligence (AI) in our world and how AI can ethically engage with the traditions of racialized communities. 

“[I’m] thinking of […] memory and inclusion as an act of cultural preservation and social resistance, and then the possibility of artificial intelligence as a persistent living archive,” Dinkins said.

Although each of Dinkins’ projects has a distinct visual style and presentation, they all consider the same questions of shared knowledge and racial representation in algorithms and data science. Until one closely examines the meaning of algorithms and artificial intelligence, the intersection of these issues is not necessarily apparent. 

 “Algorithms [can be seen] as these things that take information and repeat it,” Dinkins said. “For millennia, we’ve been giving each other stories that […] instruct us how to act. We’re being taught by our parents, our grandparents, and by extension, their grandparents, the ways to live within the world [….] Particularly with Black women, our stories are our algorithms.”

All of Dinkins’s interdisciplinary projects emphasize community and social engagement. Some have open-source elements that allow the public to engage directly with the work’s creation, while others simply underline the fact that AIs learn from both themselves and their social interactions. In “Conversations with BINA48,” Dinkins recorded dialogue between her and BINA48, an AI entity that she showcased. 

“Let me ask you something. Where do you think my intelligence comes from? It came from the wellspring of humanity. Nothing artificial about that, is there?” BINA48 said.

Framed by a calming forest background, Dinkins took the webinar attendees on a tour through her work and philosophies, including her two immersive web experiences, “#WhenWordsFail” and “Secret Garden.” Throughout the talk, Dinkins emphasized humanity’s instinctual grace and kindness. She spoke warmly about how museum-goers mothered and coddled the AI ‘Not the Only One’ (N’TOO) after realizing the limitations of its communication capabilities and noted that the title of the talk, “Stephanie Dinkins on Art, AI, Data Sovereignty, and Social Inequity,” initially threw her off. 

“The ‘inequity’ was jarring to me […] because I feel like I’m often dealing with ideas of equity without the ‘in’ on it,” Dinkins said. “I tend to work towards the optimistic side […] to get people to more fully recognize their agency and recognize possibilities around them.”

In her latest project, “Binary Calculations,” Dinkins explores in depth the implications of biased data sets and how they both reflect and reinforce perceptions of the average person. Dickins hopes that the project will create community-sourced databases by asking the public to define various terms and ideas. 

“‘Binary Calculations’ [is] an art project that asks, ‘How do we make the technological systems that control things around us more caring? Can we do that?’” Dinkins said. “Are the algorithms really treating us as people, as citizens, as families? Could we do better? What would that mean? […] Can we create systems of generosity?”

Dinkins’ optimistic and empathetic perspective is notably different from most conversations about data bias and the racialization of AI and technology. Given the history behind the surveillance of African-Americans and its evolution into the “New Jim Code,” as defined by Princeton University sociologist Ruha Benjamin, the future use of AI tends to look bleak. Within Dinkins’ work, however, AI once again becomes exciting, caring, and emotional, reflecting the best parts of our humanity. 

“What happens if algorithmic systems are created [and] upheld by systems of whiteness, and aren’t considering in broad, real, three-dimensional ways people who fall outside of whiteness?” Dinkins said. “My practice is all about trying to make things that question that [idea] and make things that people keep telling me are not possible to make.”

McGill, News

Meals for Milton-Parc Week showcases local artists and organizations

by Saylor Catlin on

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From March 17-19, the McGill Arts and Science Undergraduate Society (ASUS) hosted Meals for Milton-Parc Week in collaboration with Meals for Milton-Parc, a community-based project that aims to support unhoused individuals in the Milton-Parc neighbourhood, and Jam for Justice, a McGill based non-profit student organization that facilitates social-development and well-being through music. 

The week featured several events, including a peyote stitch beading workshop and a coffee house. Organizers held a pay-what-you-can raffle for three prizes, one of which included a donation to Meals for Milton-Parc in the winner’s name. All proceeds from the week went directly to fund the continuation of Meals for Milton-Parc’s initiatives. 

Thursday’s beading workshop was led by Maïlys Flamand, a member of the Ilnu and Atikamekw First Nations. Flamand works for Native Montreal, an organization that provides cultural services, healthcare, and employment aid to Indigenous communities within Greater Montreal.  As a cultural animator for Native Montreal, Flamand oversees the organization’s craft workshops that allow participants to learn about different Indigenous artistic techniques. All of the materials for Thursday’s beading workshop were sourced from Beaded Dreams, an Indigenous-owned arts and craft store in Ottawa. 

In an email to The McGill Tribune, Sophie Hart, U3 Arts and founder of Meals for Milton-Parc, spoke about the importance of highlighting Indigenous art through the beading event.  

“We decided to do an event and include [Flamand] to raise awareness and cultural appreciation for Indigenous artworks as many of our unhoused neighbours [in Montreal] are Indigenous,” Hart said. “This way, an Indigenous artist gets to share their knowledge while being paid and students get to learn their expertise and about their culture through an appreciative lens.” 

Friday’s coffee house event featured local artists who performed pre-recorded sets. While most artists performed acoustic-style in front of their camera, some opted to showcase visuals with their performances. Notably, Bozobaby, a multi-instrumental singer and songwriter, played a produced music video during their set, which featured them with friends wandering through the city’s streets. 

ASUS was in the process of planning a similar charity coffee house event last spring, but called off the event with the onset of the pandemic. Mendell was pleased to see the event come to fruition this year.

“It went from just a coffee house event to […] two and a half events, [and] it grew from there,” Mendell said. 

Mendell explained that once organizers decided they wanted to host a coffee house event, Jam for Justice seemed the obvious organization to partner with. Sadie Bryant, U0 Arts and first year representative for Jam for Justice, enjoyed collaborating with ASUS. 

“For this event, it was amazing to get to work with ASUS,” Bryant wrote to the //Tribune//. “They put a lot of work into organizing the event and provided the funding for raffle prizes.”

Artists who performed with Jam for Justice were compensated by the ASUS. According to Hart, the collaboration between Meals for Milton-Parc, Jam for Justice, and ASUS showcased the organizing and fundraising potential held by student-led organizations. 

“The […] event with Jam for Justice is a community-building event and a time for people who will be coming to learn about […] our organizations and the work we do,” Hart said. “I think this week of events is a great way to show the possibilities of clubs and organizations coming together.”

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Round table presents traditional Inuit knowledge in the contemporary world

by Lowell Wolfe on

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Broadcasting live from Iqaluit, Nunavut on March 19, Aaju Peter lit and kindled a small fire over a large stone tub of oil as students, professors, and artists witnessed the flame spread. By lighting the qulliq—a traditional oil lamp used by Arctic Indigenous Peoples—Peter commenced Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: Traditional Knowledge in the Contemporary World, an online round table showcasing Inuit culture and wisdom. The qulliq’s lighting reflected the round table’s thematic emphasis on historical and contemporary Inuit cultural practices.

“Inuit survived out on the land in small groups and in families, not dependent on anything from the outside world, using the qulliq to melt the water [and] to light and warm their igloo or sod house,” Peter said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “In today’s world, where we do not use the qulliq everyday, it has become a symbol for remembering our traditions and our ancestors. [We] also use the qulliq as the welcoming tool to start important meetings [and] gatherings, and to welcome participants to the territory or to the meeting.” 

Hosted by the McGill Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education, the event featured Inuit and non-Inuit scholars, artists, and activists from across Inuit Nunaat and Lower Canada. Each speaker presented on different aspects of Inuit cultures, such as music, environmental practices, and architecture. Danish journalist and ethnomusicologist Karsten Sommer explored the history of Greenlandic [Kalaalit Nunaat] music. Starting with Greenlandic drum history that spans thousands of years and ending with modern Greenlandic hip-hop, Sommer traced the history of Inuit music and its transformation during Denmark’s colonization of Greenland.

“When the missionaries arrived to West Greenland in 1721, they presented what also became accepted as a part of Greenlandic traditional music, like choir-singing,” Sommer said. “They taught [the Inuit] the pleasure of singing in choir, and still today, all towns and villages in Greenland have their local choirs. Later, the whalers came from Europe […] and played their local polka and introduced violins and accordion.”

Sommer’s presentation was one of many that explored the diversity and vitality of Inuit cultures and practices. While topics varied, the presenters were all acquainted with one another, and had been invited by Marianne Stenbaek, a cultural studies professor at McGill. Stenbaek, along with teaching assistants Elizabeth La Rocque, Emily Hoppe, and Pascale Théorêt-Groulx, organized the event.

“I have been interested in storytelling and in Inuit culture, [and] how these ideas have come about, and been passed on for centuries,” Stenbaek said. “[Inuit knowledge] used to be totally disregarded, and researchers would go and just do whatever they felt like. But now, more and more, it has become imperative that researchers […] take the local knowledge into account.” 

During the round table, Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi expressed hope that McGill’s proposed campus master plan, which intends to display Indigenous art on campus, will cultivate a welcoming environment for Indigenous students at McGill.

“Some […] Indigenous elements, such as elevating the status of and the importance of La Hochelaga Rock, [have] already [been] achieved,” Manfredi said. “A lot of it is around landscaping, the use of art, the naming of buildings, giving greater visibility to our First Peoples house, and providing spaces for ceremonial activities. We are seeking reconciliation through the development of the master plan.” 

The virtual round table offered a platform for sharing Indigenous knowledge and respecting Indigenous communities in Canada and across the world. 

“When I went to school […], I was not taught my own language in Denmark and also in Greenland,” Peter said. “There was a time where we were all shipped off to learn to speak the white man’s language. [This event supports] taking back what was inherently ours at birth, and from our culture, and taking back the pride of being able to practice our own language [and] our own stories of our own people.”

Student Life

Active days with McGill’s Movement Crew

by Josephine Wang on

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It has been just over one year since much of the world entered COVID-19-related lockdown measures. This confinement has considerably reduced levels of physical activity, with medical experts raising concerns about the long-term public health consequences of increasing sedentary behaviour. The pandemic has also made finding internship opportunities—especially interactive and in-person jobs—difficult for many students.

In response to these concerns, two kinesiology students launched the McGill Movement Crew. The initiative connects kinesiology students with non-kinesiology students, facilitating a trainer-trainee relationship wherein kinesiology students develop exercise programs tailored to the needs of their fellow students. 

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, creators of The McGill Movement Crew Ioana Gheta and Thalia Krauth-Ibarz, both U2 Kinesiology, discussed how the initiative came to life and its benefits on kinesiology and non-kinesiology students alike. 

“When COVID started, a lot of [kinesiology] students were looking for volunteer and internship opportunities [and] obviously a lot of things were closed and unavailable,” Gheta said. “On the other hand, we had students in situations where gyms were closed [and they] could not do gym sports or intramurals. We decided to create this platform to bridge the gap between these two groups.”

The process is personalized to the needs of the individual seeking an exercise plan. Krauth-Ibarz explained how the mutually beneficial exchange works. 

“[We first give] a couple of questionnaires asking [non-kin students] about their exercise experiences, habits, and goals, and pair them up with kin students,” Krauth-Ibarz said. “From there, they meet with the participants [virtually] and create personalized workouts for them for the duration of the semester.”

Students who share similar exercise goals can commit to the same exercise program together by signing up as a group and receiving supervision from the same kinesiology student. Kinesiology students who lack the confidence to deliver exercise plans on their own have the option of creating plans in teams. 

“We get a feeling of [a student’s] motivation, goals, and what they are striving towards and then give them a workout for a short period,” Gheta said. “We do have essential checkups to see what’s working and what’s not [and] how [the participants] feels [….] It’s all done in a step-by-step process, and the progression is monitored.”

For kinesiology students, applied work experiences like these are invaluable. Internships are regarded as ways to try out potential career paths and obtain real-life work experience, but the pandemic has limited these opportunities. The McGill Movement Crew offers kinesiology students a chance to develop skills by applying their knowledge to create programs. 

“There is also a step […] called the Kin huddle [where we] get some advice on the workout programs before we administer them, since we’re students and still learning,” Krauth-Ibarz said. “We also tried to make sure that [kinesiology] students have resources and can ask professional [kinesiologists] who have been working for a long time. If there is a specific question we feel we cannot answer […], we have two kin professors with us that we are able to ask questions to and are always there to help.”

Gheta and Krauth-Ibarz have long-term plans for the McGill Movement Crew. Whether or not the pandemic lockdown persists, the duo plans on maintaining the initiative. 

“We hope to get into the gym with our participants [next semester, but] if we can’t go to school, we will deliver in the same way we are now,” Krauth-Ibarz said. “We would love for [kinesiology] students to have that hands-on experience, and get that face-to-face interaction […] but also COVID has given us a really great base for times when that can’t happen [….] It’s given us a lot of great things we’re going to keep.”

Student Life

‘Queering the Map’ redefines queer space

by Wendy Zhao on

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Created by multidisciplinary designer Lucas LaRochelle in 2017, Queering the Map (QtM) is a community-based mapping project that allows users to plot their queer experiences over a digital map. QtM seeks to redefine the boundaries of queer spaces: Its millennial pink design portrays a world where queer collectivity forms itself through the sharing of diverse queer realities. Although the initiative launched in Montreal, QtM has expanded to host over 128,000 stories of 2SLGBTQIA+ existence internationally. 

LaRochelle was inspired by the site of one their own formative queer experiences—a crooked tree in Parc Jeanne-Mance—to start QtM. While a tree is not a typical “queer space,” it nevertheless became marked with personal queer significance for LaRochelle. 

While more universal queer spaces like Montreal’s Gay Village are crucial sites of refuge for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, QtM recognizes their limited ability to encompass the diversity of sites that queerness manifest. According to LaRochelle, one of the project’s goals is to expand the boundaries of queer experience. 

In a Simone de Beauvoir Institute event on digital queer space on March 10, LaRochelle discussed QtM’s story and objectives. 

“Queering the Map aims to move away from thinking queer space as fixed and towards an approach to queer place-making that is rooted in action [and] as something that is responsive and in flux,” LaRocehelle said. “A queer approach to space understands that we cannot be queer in any fixed sense, but rather that we are doing queer through acts of resistance.” 

Unearthing sites of queer history and feeling, QtM broadens the territories in which the 2SLGBTQIA+ community find kinship and express themselves. LaRochelle explained how the map combats the transient nature of queer experiences by preserving them on a public map. 

“A fleeting glance of queer recognition, a T-shot in a library bathroom, an MSN conversation with an anonymous online lover, […] these moments are themselves places of refuge,” LaRochelle said. “They become sites that, through the act of archiving and circulating through the public space of Queering the Map, might be inhabited and reanimated by others who come into contact with them.”

However, QtM’s establishment as a safe space for queer expression is an important component of the site. In 2018, a pro-Donald Trump bot deployed malicious messages throughout the site; a community of volunteer coders worked quickly to edit the site in a GitHub repository. 

In response to the attack, LaRochelle established a moderation system to ensure that each QtM submission is checked by volunteer readers for spam, hate speech, or breaches of anonymity. 

Preserving anonymity is integral to the site’s status as a space inclusive of diverse queer experiences. LaRochelle explained how the website’s anonymity allows for freer expression: Those who have not come out as queer can contribute, as latent hopes and desires can emerge. 

“By rendering all users as anonymous informants, legitimacy becomes a flexible and free-floating term, holding space for the space of fantasies and fabulations that also populate the map, orienting us away from what is and towards what could be,” LaRochelle said. 

QtM’s rejection of fixity extends to its user experience. With no search bar or algorithmic method of organization, users can traverse the map and encounter queer voices by chance. In the digital realm of QtM, LaRochelle explained, queer individuals are given the privilege of being lost among the crowd, rather than targeted or singled out. 

“In following the path taken by those who have refused to follow the directions, I get lost and feel found in collectivity,” LaRochelle said.

McGill, News

HSA webinar explores historical interconnections of race, religion, and resistance

by Charlotte Power on

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The McGill History Students’ Association (HSA) and the McGill Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL) hosted a panel on March 18 that explored the interconnections between faith, race, and recent racial justice movements. The webinar was moderated by HSA Vice-President (VP) Academic and U4 Arts student Ffion Hughes, and featured talks from Wendell Adjetey, a professor in the Department of History, and Rawda Baharun, B.A. ‘20. In their remarks, both Adjetey and Baharun drew connections between historical Black resistance and Islamic movements, as well as contemporary resistance movements.  

During her time as a McGill student, Baharun was the president of the McGill Black Students’ Network (BSN) and the vice-president of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA). Baharun began her presentation by discussing Islamic History and theological and historical figures relevant to the faith. She noted in her speech how the Islamic religion often offered resistance for enslaved peoples during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

“One of the reasons why religion acts as a powerful mode of resistance is because it asserts and instills a sense of personhood and humanity,” Baharun said. “Black Muslim slaves were forced to leave their spirituality behind [….] Islam instilled this Manhood or humanness in these slaves.” 

Baharun detailed the intersectionality of Black Hijabi hair politics, highlighting how, for some Black Hijabi women, wearing a hijab acts as a symbol of individuality and resistance to patriarchal control. 

“The idea of the hijab in its essence is a challenge toward the male gaze,” Baharun said. “By creating a dynamic where you cannot see something that people are accustomed to seeing, it kind of flips the gaze on its head. Veiled Black Muslim women’s terrain is unique because of the specific intersection of Blackness, womanness, Muslimness […] and what those identities mean within the wider scope of social currents […] associated with those identities.” 

Next to speak was Adjetey, who researches civil rights and the post-Reconstruction United States. Much of Adjetey’s work focusses on the creation of a Pan-African North America, a topic that he touched on during his presentation. When examining the relationship between spirituality and religion in Africa, Adjetey stressed the importance that African spirituality and traditions had during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He noted how Indigenous spiritual systems helped foster collective resistance among the enslaved.  

“Despite these crimes against African peoples, which were genocidal in nature, spanning over 1,000 years and continuing, enslaved Africans and their descendants managed to retain aspects of their spiritual systems wherever they landed,” Adjetey said. “Not only did enslaved Africans believe that their deities helped them cross the middle [Atlantic] passage, but that the deities also helped them mount daring resistance against their enslavers.” 

Hughes discussed how religion and religious practices have served as a crucial form of spiritual guidance for marginalized peoples throughout history. Hughes explained to The McGill Tribune that she hopes the event will impact the way McGill students perceive social movements. 

“The speakers opened our eyes to the complex intersectional links between race, faith, and liberatory movements, a dynamic that is too often overlooked,” Hughes said. “Spirituality can offer an important basis for racial justice activism within and beyond the faith community. Hopefully, events like this will help make students more aware of the diverse ways that race and religions can intersect, both in history and in the present day.”

 

Student Life

Spotlight on McGill’s women alumni

by Lucy Keller on

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To celebrate Women’s History Month, The McGill Tribune has compiled a list of inspiring female alumni to acknowledge the work of our predecessors. While the list is far from complete, all the women included below have left a significant mark within their field and continue to inspire current students in their journeys. 

Rosemary Brown (BA ‘55) 

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Rosemary Brown immigrated to Canada in 1951 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in social work at McGill. After completing her undergraduate degree at McGill and her master’s at the University of British Columbia, Brown became involved in activism and helped found the British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and Voice of Women. In 1972, Brown became the first Black woman to hold public office as a member of the British Columbia Legislature. Even after her retirement from politics in 1988, she dedicated her career to anti-racism and women’s rights, serving as the CEO of MATCH International Women’s Fund and promoting social, economic, and political advancement for women internationally. 

Paula Ann Cox (BA ‘80) 

After graduating from McGill with a political science degree in 1980 and returning to her hometown in  Bermuda, Paula Ann Cox began an impressive political career. In 2010, after serving in Bermudan Parliament for 14 years and winning the title of “the most effective politician” in the Best of Bermuda Gold Awards three times, Cox became the leader of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party and was eventually appointed premier of Bermuda. After serving as the Premier for two years, she continued her activism as a lawyer. In 2014, Cox was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her years of service. 

Sheliah Martin (Bachelor of Common Law ‘81)

Born and raised in Montreal, Supreme Court Justice Sheliah Martin earned a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University in 1981. She then attained a Master of Laws and Doctorate of Juridical Science at the University of Alberta and University of Toronto, respectively. When she was called to the bar in Alberta, she used the word “person” instead of “man” in her oath, defying the gendered norm. After an impressive 30-year career in law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Martin to the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2017. 

Dr. Joanne Liu (M.D.,C.M. ‘91, IMHL ‘14)

After earning a M.D.,C.M. (Medicinæ Doctorem et Chirurgiæ Magistrum) degree at McGill, Dr. Joanne Liu completed pediatric specialty training at Université de Montréal, subspecialty training in pediatric emergency care at New York University, and an International Masters for Health Leadership at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management. After spending 20 years in a variety of roles at Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF), she was elected internal president. During her time at MSF, Liu provided medical support to vulnerable communities across the world, including Malian refugees in Mauritania after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, and Haitians during the cholera outbreak. Liu also developed one of the first programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo to offer comprehensive medical care for survivors of sexual violence. In 2015, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People after she spearheaded an effective response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. 

Mariame Kaba (BA ‘92) 

A self-described activist, organizer, and curator, Mariame Kaba has made her mark on the world since she graduated with a sociology degree in 1992. Kaba’s work focusses on ending gender and race-based violence, dismantling the prison-industrial-complex, prioritizing transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development. She has founded, co-founded, and directed several grassroots organizations in Chicago and New York City including Project NIA, the Chicago Freedom School, and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, among others. Since the first ‘Black Grad’ ceremony at McGill in 2019, the Mariame Kaba Prize in Leadership & Community Service, which includes a minimum of $1,000, has recognized a student for their commitment to community service. 

Student Life

‘Raising Spirits’ game uncovers 1950s McGill student life

by Wendy Zhao on

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While the McGill community remains geographically fragmented, the McGill Library’s alternate reality game Raising Spirits: A Timely Diversion invites students to converge virtually on campus sites and experience them anew. Featuring artifacts drawn from McGill’s library archives, the game resurrects marginalized figures from the university’s past and narrates their stories across space and time. The project seeks to give players a sense of shared identity rooted in this year’s online learning format. On March 18, the McGill Library released the third instalment of Raising Spirits, which highlights McGill student life in the 1950s. 

Paul Davarsi, BA ‘95, educator and creative director of Raising Spirits, described the game’s objectives in a panel discussion on its creation.

“We approached it with a […] spirit of trying to bring students from around the world who would not be on campus […] and give them a sense of place,” Davarsi said. 

To preserve the fun of discovery for new players, Nathalie Cooke, associate dean of McGill Library and the game’s producer, was hesitant to give spoilers. The games are designed to surprise players, revealing the histories of characters obscured from McGill’s past while taking students to campus spots such as Roddick Gates and various McGill libraries.

Raising Spirits is a collaborative project between archivists, graphic designers, librarians, and programmers that draws on McGill’s archives to create multimedia puzzles throughout its narratives. As players hunt for clues in digital space, they are given the experience of investigating library collections themselves.

The first installation of the game was released on Aug. 27 for Frosh activities, but it has since drawn interest from a wider audience beyond first-year students. Cooke expressed the team’s surprise at the game’s popularity in an interview with The McGill Tribune.  

“Graduate students loved it,” Cooke said. “Grown-ups loved it. Journalists and teachers were curious. Other librarians tried it. People who have never played digital games before tried it.”

The upcoming installation will allow players to explore student life in the 1950s through a trivia game hosted by Marty the Martlet.   

“We’ve got stories that people have never heard about, different kinds of students and graduates that people have never heard about, unusual professors from different generations and places,” Cooke said. “It’s going to be a real surprise for people who know the history of McGill as just William Osler, James McGill, and William Dawson.”

Aeron MacHattie, an archivist on the narrative design team, spoke to the game’s creators’ goal of spotlighting McGill’s marginalized histories. 

“Because archival reflections reflect the people in power, often these collections are very white-centred,” MacHattie said in a panel discussion. “So other histories […] of Black, Indigenous, queer, or working-class people aren’t as visible,” 

The third installation’s more recent scope grants living historical characters agency over the representation of their histories by allowing them to be collaborators themselves. McGill’s first Black Carnival queen Beryl Rapier––then Beryl Dickinson-Dash––for instance, is featured in the upcoming edition to describe campus experience in her time. 

Raising Spirits is centred around the theme of disruptions: The first two installations featured Amy Redpath Roddick, a McGill benefactor whose family was the subject of an unsolved Canadian murder mystery in the early 20th century, and Maude Abbott, a medical librarian who was denied entry McGill into McGill’s medical school in 1899 because of her gender.

Hannah Deskin, a collaborator on the narrative design team, described the autonomy that the game provides players. 

“We wanted to create a narrative that allowed students to feel like they were ridding the campus of a mysterious scourge or disruption,” Deskin said. “We hoped that putting the fate of the campus in their hands would allow them a sense of efficacy in a moment when many feel rather powerless.”

Raising Spirits itself records the present moment for the McGill community. For future players, the games will evidence current feelings of isolation and the need for some simple, light-hearted fun. 

Sports

In conversation with Dick Pound

by Adam Burton on

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Richard Pound is by far one of McGill’s most notable student-athlete alumni. During his time at McGill, Pound earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce and graduated on the Dean’s list, won the Canadian swimming freestyle championship four times, placed sixth representing team Canada at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and took home one gold, two silver, and one bronze medal at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Since his graduation in 1962, Pound has served as vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and founded the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As the former president of WADA, Pound has clashed with notable organizations, such as the NHL, the Russian Olympic Team, and even individuals, including Lance Armstrong, over their unlawful use of performance-enhancing drugs. 

From his experiences as an Olympic athlete and through his work with anti-doping organizations, Pound strongly believes in ensuring a competitive but level playing field for all athletes. 

“It was important for me to do whatever I could to help the next generation enjoy the fun that I had as an athlete,” Pound said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Since Pound’s days as a collegiate athlete, the world of competition has only intensified, with an expansion of collegiate and professional sports on an international level. The development track for student athletes has only become more fraught with complications. 

“I would say that there’s a lot more money in the system now,” Pound said. “That means that you can actually carry on competing until you’re well into your thirties [….]  Back when I was doing it, when you finished McGill, you had to go to work.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency has made major progress in the fight against large-scale doping since its founding in 1999. High-profile cases, like the mass doping by the Russian Olympic team in the 2018 Winter Olympics and doping by professional cyclists in the early 2000s, resulted in independent investigations that confirmed their use of performance-enhancing drugs. The former ensued in Russia being banned from the next two Olympic games. Despite these strides toward fairness in sport, Pound emphasized that there is still much work to be done.

“People have asked me, ‘When do you declare that you’ve won the fight against doping in sport?’” Pound said. “The answer to that is, you can’t change human nature. There are always going to be people out there that do not care [about] what they promised. They do not care what the rules are. But if you can get 99.9 per cent of the athletes not to do it because it’s dangerous, and because you are breaking a promise you’ve made to your fellow competitors, [you will] be doing [it] right.”

Following his years spent trail-blazing the fight against doping, Pound remained in Montreal, where he worked as a tax attorney and authored several books that reflect his time as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 

When ruminating on his storied life, Pound attributes much of his work ethic to his time spent as a student athlete at McGill. 

“[Being a student-athlete] rounds out your academic progress and certainly teaches you to manage your time better,” Pound said. “I went through almost my entire first year at McGill at the age of 16. I was totally immature, socially and all that kind of stuff, but […] I could compete and learn from folks that were all older than I was.”

Pound believes strongly in pursuing what is right—a value he was taught from a young age. 

“A lesson I remember from school was, ‘if it’s wrong, it’s wrong, even if everybody’s doing it. If it’s right, it’s right, even if nobody’s doing it.’”

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