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McGill Reporter
October 24, 2002 - Volume 35 Number 04
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Global positioning

Photo The cover of Hachey's book, The Canadian Guide to Working and Living Overseas

If you're at all curious about how to get your itchy feet over to Cambodia or Colombia, your first step is to wander over to the internationally inclined career workshops sponsored by McGill's Career and Placement Service. Community radio script writer in Zimbabwe? Development work in India? Doctorate in Finland? From railway design to foreign service; from HIV awareness promotion to teaching English, Canadians can easily work around the world.

Acadian Jean-Marc Hachey, the author of The Canadian Guide to Working and Living Overseas, will give two back-to-back workshops Tuesday, Nov. 5, on how to succeed at an international career.

Hachey knows the field -- he's worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World University Services of Canada, Canadian Crossroads International and the German Volunteer Service. He has consulted global heavyweights Canadian International Development Agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs and various non-governmental organizations.

He'll speak about gaining experience, coping and communication skills, and how to be effective at working overseas. Then Hachey will tackle how to look for jobs, how to write an international resumé, and selling yourself to potential employers.

Jean-Marc Hachey, "Skills for Succeeding and Gaining International Experience" and "International Resumé and the Hiring Process." Tuesday, November 5, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm in the Frank Dawson Adams Building Auditorium.

Health by design

Photo U3 architecture students Vanya Chan and Kim An Truong at the exhibition
PHOTO: Owen Egan

If you've got a flu or broken leg and need to go to the emergency room, chances are you aren't going to pause to admire the building that you're entering. Unless your name is Eb Zeidler. The Toronto based architect's firm -- Zeidler Grinnel Partnership Architects -- is staging a retrospective of "50 Years of Health Care Design" in the MacDonald Harrington Building.

The firm has been designing health care facilities in Canada and abroad for half a century -- their work includes the Guelph General Hospital, the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children atrium, and the Ottawa Civic Hospital extensions.

Posters, models and video displays explain the Zeidler Grinnel history, and approach to health care facility design. One signature feature that is present in many of the hospitals featured is actually best known in Canada from another Zeidler Grinnel project.

"He also designed the Eaton Centre in Toronto, which I was very impressed by. It has the same kind of soaring glass atrium that you now see in hospitals across the country," said David Krawitz, administrative coordinator at the School of Architecture.

The light, open spaces that are a Zeidler trademark are part of what makes for successful hospital design, according to the firm's display.

"Regardless of the point from which one begins to examine the healing process, it is inseparably linked to our emotional state," reads one poster in the display, "It is necessary to examine how a person heals in the hospital environment."

"50 Years of Health Care Design" will be on display in the MacDonald Harrington building until October 27, 9 am to 5 pm.

Putting social into science

Photo Ursula Franklin in 1967

Ursula Franklin believes in asking questions. It's just that the renowned physicist doesn't think researchers are asking the right ones.

Franklin, a physicist and humanitarian, will explore what she thinks are the right questions in her upcoming lecture, "Research as a social enterprise: Are we asking the right questions?" sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada, of which she is a member. She will pepper her talk with historical examples of both Canadian and non-Canadian socially minded research, which she believes is better served by women scientists.

"I'll try to say, in particular to the Royal Society of Canada, don't forget that questions -- even for maths, physics, the pure sciences -- should not be taken out of social context. People are cut off from exposure to social and political problems of the time."

Franklin was born in 1921 in Munich, Germany, and was imprisoned in a Nazi work camp for 18 months. She received her PhD in experimental physics at the Technical University of Berlin in 1948, and emigrated to Canada the following year. In 1967, she became the first woman professor in University of Toronto's department of metallurgy and materials science, and was a pioneer in archaeometry, dating artefacts from prehistoric sites. In 1984 she received the title of University Professor, U of T's highest honour.

Still going strong at age 81, Franklin says, "I have an ongoing interest in things, ideas, people, social structure. You don't give that up when you retire -- I've never seen separation between my scholarship and my life."

For more information on the Royal Society of Canada, see our back page feature.

Tuesday, Nov. 5, Research as a social enterprise: Are we asking the right questions? Dr Ursula Franklin, University of Toronto. Sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada's Women in Scholarship Committee, Leacock Building, Robert Vogel Council Rm 232 , 5:00 pm.

Women in Afghanistan

Photo Women for Women Afghanistan postcard
PHOTO: Raffaele Ciriello

As you read this, journalist Sally Armstrong is in Afghanistan, but she'll be back by the month's end to speak on her experiences in that country. She is receiving an honorary doctorate from McGill (see page 4).

McGill student Lauryn Oates, will have a display table outside of the lecture hall on behalf of the Canadian volunteer group Women for Women Afghanistan. Oates will display photos and a burqa, and hand out postcards for a campaign asking the Canadian government for increased peacekeeping forces around Kabul. Books will be on sale, with all proceeds going to women's projects in Afghanistan. For more information on Women for Women, see www.w4wafghan.ca or contact Oates at lauryn.oates@mail.mcgill.ca or (514) 346-3151. The McGill Bookstore will be selling Sally Armstrong's latest book, Veiled Threat, at 25% off at the event.

Sally Armstrong, "Who in the World is Responsible for What Happened to the Women in Afghanistan." The annual Muriel V. Roscoe lecture, sponsored by the McGill Centre for Teaching and Research on Women and the McGill Women's Alumnae Association, will be held October 30, at 6 pm, Leacock Building, room 232.

Everyone loves a parade

Photo ILLUSTRATION: Tzigane

Don't be surprised to see a horse-drawn carriage, street performers, and a gaggle of seniors in wheelchairs on McGill's lower campus on November 5. The procession is to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Elderly Project, an outreach project run by the Yellow Door for Montreal seniors.

"There will be a percussion band, little skits, performers in costumes, a horse-drawn carriage," said Pietro Bozzo, director of the Yellow Door, "It will be a circus atmosphere."

The parade of seniors, volunteers, project partners and performers will run from lower campus, through the Milton Gates and on to Lorne Avenue, on to Prince Arthur before finishing at the Yellow Door at 3623 Aylmer St. There, parade goers can attend the open house -- cake will be served for all.

The Elderly Project currently matches about 100 to 150 seniors in Montreal, with a similar number of volunteers. In the project's three decades, more than 5,000 seniors have used its services. Volunteers help seniors with daily tasks, accompany them on errands and outings, and visit them in their homes. The project also co-ordinates social events for seniors and volunteers.

"The objective is to offset isolation and to help seniors stay in their homes rather than be institutionalized," said Bozzo.

The parade will start with a series of performances at about 3:15 pm November 5. The open house at the Yellow Door begins at 4 pm. For more information on the Elderly Project, please call Rachel Heap or Naomi Lear at 398-6243. To find out more about the Yellow Door, visit www.yellowdoor.org.

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