{"id":27093,"date":"2020-07-23T21:21:48","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T01:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27093"},"modified":"2020-07-23T21:21:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T01:21:54","slug":"york-university-continues-scholars-hub-program-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york-university-continues-scholars-hub-program-home\/","title":{"rendered":"York University continues Scholar\u2019s Hub program \u201c@Home\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The definition of \u201cdemocracy\u201d \u2013 along with rights and freedoms in a rapidly changing world \u2013 have recently been hot-button issues in this uncertain time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, they were issues due to be tackled at the Aurora Public Library (APL) this past April as the Library and York University planned to host the second lecture in their Scholar\u2019s Hub partnership launched last fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans to host a York University professor on the topic of democracy had to be pushed to the backburner as APL was forced to close its doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the partnership is moving forward in a new way \u2013 virtually \u2013 in Scholars\u2019 Hub @ Home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a series of webinars, York\u2019s partnership with APL was renewed this Wednesday, July 22, with Exploring the Summer Skies, a talk on astronomy and developments in space research carried out by the university, with future talks \u2013 free for everyone, regardless of educational background \u2013 resuming on a bi-weekly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe entire world changed,\u201d says Kairi Williams, Associate Director of Alumni Events for York University. \u201cThe challenge then became\u2026how do we still fulfil the organization\u2019s mandate under these new circumstances with the pandemic? That was the question many of us were trying to answer and we\u2019re also trying to answer at York. It really came down to moving, transitioning this in-person experience to a virtual experience. The difference is we actually found a way to do this where it almost didn\u2019t matter where you were in the world, you could be a part of this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York subsequently pre-recorded two lectures for Scholars\u2019 Hub @ Home, each of which were well-received, as was a third lecture that was livestreamed, and going live is the order of the day moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the same premise, which is to deliver lectures from academics from York related to topics that are current, relevant and now,\u201d says Ms. Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From APL\u2019s perspective, they were looking for ways to continue their partnership with York in this \u201cnew normal\u201d and they were eager to jump on board with this new virtual format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to be curious and engaged,\u201d says Reccia Mandelcorn, APL\u2019s Manager of Community Collaboration. \u201cIt is so important to keep alert with the things that are going on in the world, especially when many of us are not being a part of that world. I love the opportunity that every two weeks, two o\u2019clock on a Wednesday afternoon, people will be able to tune in and listen to a short lecture on something they may have always been interested in or didn\u2019t even know they were interested in. I look at this as not a substitution but a whole different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they began looking at transitioning to a virtual world, York was trying to make sense not only of the pandemic itself but how that reality would inform the future. They wanted to look at how the \u201cnew normal\u201d was going to impact how people interact, as well as economic and societal impacts. They explored how COVID-19 was impacting mothers, the homeless, and even the \u201cpolitics of vaccines\u201d and how that will shape the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidents at home and abroad, including the killing of George Floyd, sparked a discussion on anti-Black racism as well as the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018we\u2019ve got to do this too\u2019 because our commitment is to do things that are timely, relevant and just relatable,\u201d says Ms. Williams. \u201cThose two topics basically took us through the Spring\u2026and our highest attended sessions were those two sessions on anti-Black racism because it really seemed to resonate with people who wanted to know what is going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t done hearing about COVID, they\u2019re also not done hearing about anti-Black racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these sessions have proved to be well-attended, this is not the only measure of success being eyed by York and the APL. Although numbers are important, Ms. Mandelcorn says her own personal yardstick is how people may have been challenged and changed at the end of a lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow have people\u2019s lives been changed? How have they opened up? If one person walked away and was changed and impacted, that\u2019s my measurement,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Ms. Williams: \u201cThis series is part of supporting York\u2019s reputation as being a leading educational institution featuring York\u2019s scholars, whether they be professors or researchers. Just also advancing knowledge and thought leadership within our communities \u2013 with people who are sort of surrounding the university either physically or even virtually. Thought leadership, getting people to question and think differently about things, is part of what an educational institution stands for. Tactically, we\u2019re always looking to have more people coming and coming back, but holistically it is about furthering York\u2019s mission to be an inclusive and progressive educational organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on Scholars\u2019 Hub @Home, visit aurorapl.ca or register for upcoming discussions at yorku.zoom.us\/webinar\/register. The next lecture will take place Wednesday, August 5, from 12 noon to 12.45 p.m., and will feature Silvia Vasquez Olguin on gardening and food sustainability.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The definition of \u201cdemocracy\u201d \u2013 along with rights and freedoms in a rapidly changing world \u2013 have recently been hot-button issues in this uncertain time. In fact, they were issues due to be tackled at the Aurora Public Library (APL) this past April as the Library and York University planned to host the second lecture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-72Z","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 21:36:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}