Racialized Social Relations in Higher Education: Black Student and Faculty

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Racialized Social Relations in Higher Education: Black Student and Faculty Racialized social relations in higher education: Black student and faculty experiences of a Canadian university By Rosalind Hampton Department of Integrated Studies in Education Faculty of Education McGill University, Montreal September 2016 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies © Rosalind Hampton RACIALIZED SOCIAL RELATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2 Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 5 Resumé ................................................................................................................................ 6 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 7 Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................... 8 Settler Colonialism and Education ...................................................................................... 9 The Canadian University ................................................................................................... 13 The University as a site of struggle ............................................................................ 18 Black educational activism .................................................................................... 19 Systemic Inequity and Education in Québec and Canada ................................................. 25 Black Canadian Studies and the Neoliberal University .............................................. 32 My Story of Disjuncture .................................................................................................... 36 Finding a conversation ................................................................................................ 41 “Becoming” an activist ................................................................................................ 43 Overview of the Dissertation ............................................................................................. 50 Objectives and research questions ............................................................................... 50 Structure of the dissertation ......................................................................................... 50 Chapter Two: Theoretical Influences ............................................................................ 52 On Blackness and Whiteness ............................................................................................. 52 Critical Race Theories ....................................................................................................... 55 Critical race theories in education ............................................................................... 56 Interest Convergence ................................................................................................... 57 Critiquing Racial Liberalism ....................................................................................... 59 Canadian multiculturalism and Québec’s interculturalism ................................... 62 Anticolonialism ................................................................................................................. 66 Critiquing colonial ideology ........................................................................................ 72 Neoliberalism and diversity discourses ....................................................................... 78 Deficit and disposability ........................................................................................ 82 Chapter Three: Methods of Inquiry .............................................................................. 86 Defining a Critical Institutional Activist Ethnography ..................................................... 87 The terms of Institutional Ethnography / Political Activist Ethnography ................... 88 Institutions ............................................................................................................. 89 Ruling relations ..................................................................................................... 90 Black people’s work .............................................................................................. 91 Texts ...................................................................................................................... 92 Activism and social change ......................................................................................... 93 Naming and tensions ............................................................................................. 94 Data Collection / Mapping Strategies ................................................................................ 97 Researcher positionality .............................................................................................. 97 Research participants ................................................................................................... 98 Approach to interviews ................................................................................................ 99 Critical race counterstorytelling .......................................................................... 100 RACIALIZED SOCIAL RELATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION 3 Chapter Four: Colonial Legacies and Canadian Ivy ................................................. 104 Meeting James McGill .................................................................................................... 106 Slavery and the transatlantic slave economy ............................................................. 109 McGill Lineage and the University ................................................................................. 118 The power to write history ........................................................................................ 122 Anticolonial Resistance and Black Power ....................................................................... 125 Toward a New Millennium ............................................................................................. 134 Conclusion: On a Critical Engagement with History ...................................................... 139 Chapter Five: Navigating the University Environment ............................................. 143 The Idealized ‘Elite University’ ...................................................................................... 143 “A plethora of knowledge” ........................................................................................ 147 “Dealing with James McGill” ......................................................................................... 150 Class Relations: Students “Climbing the Hill” ................................................................ 152 “The McGill Bubble”: A “Sea of Whiteness” ................................................................. 158 “White Hallways” by Cora-Lee Conway .................................................................. 164 The professoriate: “Where are the teachers that look like me?” ............................... 165 Conclusion: Expectations Meet Experience .................................................................... 181 Chapter Six: Socialization and Anticolonial identity work ....................................... 184 The Denigrated ‘Other’ ................................................................................................... 187 Being and Becoming ‘Black’ .......................................................................................... 193 Black Canadian “identity problems” ......................................................................... 195 Managing Interlocking Stereotype Threats ..................................................................... 198 Antiracist Construction Work .......................................................................................... 205 Affinity Groups, Allies and Political Coalitions ............................................................. 210 The Black Student Network ...................................................................................... 210 GSMC, SOCM and C-Uni-T ..................................................................................... 217 The alternative campus community ........................................................................... 219 McGill Daily ........................................................................................................ 220 CKUT .................................................................................................................. 221 QPIRG-McGill .................................................................................................... 224 Conclusion: Navigating and Resisting Racialization and Colonial Ideology ................. 227 Chapter Seven: Service work and non-formal teaching and learning ..................... 230 Serving the University ..................................................................................................... 231 “Diversity & equity” work ........................................................................................ 233 Hiring committees ..................................................................................................... 239 The Africana Studies Committee .............................................................................. 246 Conferences
Recommended publications
  • The Book of Negroes As a Canadian Work of Rememory
    Where Literature Fills the Gaps: The Book of Negroes as a Canadian Work of Rememory Christine Duff awrence Hill’s the Book of negroeS1 takes its title from a late eighteenth-century document listing some 3,000 Black Loyalists given passage to Nova Scotia following the American LWar of Independence. Prior to Hill’s widely read novel, few Canadians were aware of the document’s existence, much less the reasons for this displacement of people and their treatment following their arrival. Through the voice of Hill’s protagonist, Aminata Diallo, the fictional scribe who creates the register “The Book of Negroes,” these historical facts are rememoried2 and rewoven into the fabric of the Canadian historical record. George Elliott Clarke explains the importance of these exercises of remembering and rememorying in his introduction to the anthology Eyeing the North Star: Directions in African-Canadian Literature: “Because African-Canadian history is ignored in Canada, African-Canadian writers are forced to act as historians” (xx).3 The need for this work of recollection and rememory in the Canadian context is an urgent one, as Canada is too often absent from discussions of post- slavery New World societies. Slavery fiction in the United States, for example, has been an object of study since its beginnings in the 1960s.4 In evoking the Black Loyalist experience in Nova Scotia, Hill brings parts of Canada’s past out of the shadows, filling the gaps in the history books alluded to by Clarke. In this sense, the novel is part of a wider movement in contemporary Canadian historical fiction, as described by Herb Wyile in Speculative Fictions: Contemporary Canadian Novels and the Writing of History, in that it draws our attention to a historically marginalized population and is marked by a clear preoccupation with the historiography itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Confronting Racism Readings
    Lectures sur la lutte contre le racisme - Confronting Racism Readings Historians at our university have put this bibliography together to provide resources to our students and colleagues. It is not intended to be a definitive list. Les historien.ne.s de notre université ont contribué à cette bibliographie afin de fournir des ressources à nos étudiants et à nos collègues. Non-Fiction Books Baldwin, James. Nobody Knows my Name: More Notes from a Native Son ​ A collection of essays on racial discrimination and tensions Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son ​ Notes on the complexities of being black in America from the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the 1950’s Boulou Ebanda de B’béri, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Handel Kashope Wright, eds. The ​ Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond. University of Toronto Press, 2014. ​ This collection explores the Chatham-Kent area of Ontario as an early site of Black presence in Canada. Using a cultural studies approach, the essays focus on the professional and antislavery activities of Blacks in Chatham-Kent, and on their interactions with other settlers as well with First Nations in the region. Epilogue by Afua Cooper. Rosalind S Chou and Joe R Feagan. The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian-Americans ​ Facing Racism, Routledge 2014. ​ Desmond Cole. The Skin We're In: A year of Black resistance and power, Penguin Random ​ ​ House, 2020. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year—2017—in the struggle against racism in this country.
    [Show full text]
  • The Birthplace of Hockey Adam Gopnik Traces the Montreal Roots of Our Greatest Winter Sport
    McG NeALUMw NI MAGAsZINE Moments that changed McGill McGill Daily turns 100 Anne-France Goldwater : arbitre vedette The birthplace of hockey Adam Gopnik traces the Montreal roots of our greatest winter sport FALL/WINTER 20 11 publications.mcgill.ca/mcgillnews “My“My groupgroup ratesrates savedsaved meme a lotlot ofof money.”moneyy..” – Miika Klemetti, McGill graduate Satisfied client since 2008 Insurance program recommended by the SeeSee howhow goodgood youryour quotequote cancan be.be. At TD Insurance Meloche Monnex, we know how important it is to save wherever you can. As a member of the McGill Alumni Association, you can enjoy preferred group rates and other exclusive privileges, thanks to ourour partnership with your association. You’ll also benefit fromom great coverage and outstanding service. At TD Insurance, we believe in making insurance easy to understand so you can choose your coverage with confidence. GetGet anan onlineonline quotequote atat www.melochemonnex.com/mcgillwww.melochemomonnex.com/mcgill oror callcall 1-866-352-61871-866-352-6187 MondayMonday toto Friday,Friday, 8 a.m.a.m. toto 8 p.m.p.m. SSaturday,aturday, 9 aa.m..m. ttoo 4 pp.m..m. The TD Insurance Meloche Monnex home and auto insurance pprogramg is underunderwritten byy SECURITY NAATIONALTIONAL INSURANCEINSURANCE COMPANY. The program is distributed by MelocheMeloche Monnex Insurance and Financial Services Inc. in Quebecebec and by Meloche Monnex Financiall Services Inc. in the rest off Canada. Due to pprovincial legislation,g our auto insurance program is not offered in British Coolumbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan. *No purchaseh required.d Contest endsd on January 13, 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a De-Racialized African-Canadian Literature Desi Valentine
    ariel: a review of international english literature Vol. 45 No. 4 Pages 111–132 Copyright © 2014 The Johns Hopkins University Press and the University of Calgary Perspectives Contesting Clarke: Towards A De-Racialized African-Canadian Literature Desi Valentine Abstract: This article draws on personal narrative, literary criti- cism, and multicultural Canadian literature to interrogate George Elliott Clarke’s conceptualizations of a Black Canadian literature and a racialized African-Canadian literary canon in his 2002 essay collection Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literatures. Clarke’s work is juxtaposed with my own experience as a bi-racial, multi-ethnic, Black, Negro, mulatto, half-caste, African-Canadian woman, and with those of non-Black scholars, to expose the shifting contours of ethnicity and the blurred and blurring boundaries of Canadian blackness in multi-, mixed-, and indeterminately racial Canada. Through these critical compari- sons, I suggest that a racialized African-Canadian literary canon excludes the multiple Canadian cultures in which our literatures are formed, and supports racial constructs that no longer fit the shapes of our multi-ethnic, diasporic, postcolonial skins. I con- clude that upon the fertile ground tended by Clarke’s Black lit- erary activism, a de-racialized African-Canadian literature may grow. Keywords: African-Canadian literature, autoethnography, Cana- dian blackness, ethnic­ studies, postcolonial studies, race theory In Canada, some are born black, some acquire blackness, and others have blackness thrust upon them. George Elliott Clarke, Odysseys Home (16) When I was a child living in northeast Edmonton, the term used for people like me was “Negro.” This was in the early 1980s, when everyone 111 Desi Valentine had Michael Jackson’s Thriller album and Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s procla- mations about Canadian multiculturalism were being enacted through Canada’s new Charter of Rights and Freedoms and—most relevant to my seven-year-old self—through Alberta’s public education curricula.
    [Show full text]
  • Women Pilots?
    There is a lot on this site and others about the role of Gander in the transfer of bombers from the United States to Britain in World War ll. In our mind’s eye, we can clearly see the young men - and some much older – sitting bravely in their cockpits in the evening light as the props start to turn and the first puff of smoke comes out the cylinders of the mighty engines. A last-minute cockpit check, throttles full forward and another bomber races down those reassuringly long Gander runways as they fly out, with little to guide and protect them on the way, over 2000 miles of empty ocean. All these men, the stuff of heroes! But were there no women who ferried a bomber across the Atlantic? Scholarly and military-related sources seemed unanimous that it was an all-male operation and that women were definitely not welcome - but I wanted to find out for sure. My interest for this question was stirred up even more by a photo I found and bought through an Internet search concerning a well known American pilot who may have done it – but the story was far from certain, especially after finding out that she had doctored her own autobiography! But before going any further, a few definitions: - ATA : the Air Transport Auxiliary was a British World War II civilian organization that basically ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points and active service squadrons and airfields. It also flew service personnel on urgent duty and performed air ambulance work.
    [Show full text]
  • BLACK HISTORY in CANADA EDUCATION GUIDE TABLE of CONTENTS
    The HISTORICA-DOMINION INSTITUTE in partnership with TD BANK GROUP presents BLACK HISTORY in CANADA EDUCATION GUIDE TABLE of CONTENTS A Message to Teachers 2 A Message from Lawrence Hill 3 Synopsis of The Book of Negroes 3 Black History in 4 Canada Timeline Journey: The Story of 6 Aminata Diallo a MESSAGE to TEACHERS Slavery and Human Rights 7 Passage to Canada: 8 Evaluating Historic Sources he largest independent organization dedicated to Canadian history, identity & Modern Stories of Migration and citizenship, The Historica-Dominion Institute is committed to bringing the stories Tand experiences of Canada into the classroom. This innovative Education Guide explores Contemporary Culture 10 seminal events and personalities in Black Canadian history through engaging discussion and interactive activities. It was made possible with the generous support of TD Bank Group, whose commitment to Black history and culture has been celebrated. The purpose of this Guide is to enhance your students’ knowledge and appreciation of the Black Canadian experience, drawing from Lawrence Hill’s award-winning historical fiction, The Book of Negroes, the remarkable journey of Aminata Diallo and the historic British document known as the “Book of Negroes.” Structured around themes of journey, slavery, human rights, passage to Canada and contemporary culture, this Guide asks students to examine issues of identity, equality, community, and nation-building in both a historical and contemporary context. The tools provided here are supplemented with additional activities and resources at the Black History Portal blackhistorycanada.ca. We hope this Guide will assist you in teaching this important aspect of Canadian history in your English, Social Studies, History or Law classroom.
    [Show full text]
  • At an Elite University
    BLACK RACIALIZATION AND RESISTANCE AT AN ELITE UNIVERSITY rosalind hampton BLACK RACIALIZATION AND RESISTANCE AT AN ELITE UNIVERSITY The presence and experiences of Black people at elite universities have been largely underrepresented or erased from institutional histories. In Black Racialization and Resistance at an Elite University, rosalind hampton documents narratives that span half a century and that reflect differ- ences in class, gender, and national identifications among Black schol- ars. By mapping Black people’s experiences of studying and teaching at McGill University, hampton reveals how the “whiteness” of the uni- versity both includes and exceeds the racial identities of students and professors. The study highlights the specific functions of Blackness and of anti-Blackness within society in general and within the institution of higher education in particular, demonstrating how structures and prac- tices of the university reproduce interlocking systems of oppression that uphold racial capitalism, reproduce colonial relations, and pro- mote settler nationalism. Critically engaging the work of Black learn- ers, academics, organizers, and activists within this dynamic political context, this book underscores the importance of Black Studies across North America. rosalind hampton is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. ROSALIND HAMPTON Black Racialization and Resistance at an Elite University UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2020 Toronto Buffalo London utorontopress.com Printed in Canada ISBN 978- 1- 4875- 0438- 0 (cloth) ISBN 978- 1- 4875- 3005- 1 (EPUB) ISBN 978- 1- 4875- 2486- 9 (paper) ISBN 978- 1- 4875- 3004- 4 (PDF) _____________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: Black racialization and resistance at an elite university / rosalind hampton.
    [Show full text]
  • Mcgill University Archives Mcgill University, Montreal Canada
    McGill University Archives McGill University, Montreal Canada MG4240 J.W. McConnell Fonds Accession 2004‐0114 This is a guide to one of the collections held by the McGill University Archives, McGill University. Visit the McGill University Archives homepage (http://www.mcgill.ca/archives) for more information TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Acknowledgments 2 Fonds Description 3 Series and Subseries Description 7 Correspondence 7 Journals, Scrapbooks, Address Books 8 Personal and Family Records 9 Philanthropy and Fundraising 10 Hospitals and Health Care Higher Education War Effort High Society 11 Business Commitments 12 Company Promotions Commercial Trust Company, Ltd. The Montreal Star St. Lawrence Sugar Refineries Ltd. Property Holdings (St. Lawrence Sugar Refineries) File Listing by Container (including photographs and moving images) 13 MG 4240/Acc.04-114 1 INTRODUCTION The John Wilson McConnell Fonds and Finding Aid were prepared over the summer and fall of 2004 by Shannon Hodge, Contract Archivist and Gordon Burr, Senior Archivist and Records Manager, McGill University. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The creation of the John Wilson McConnell Fonds was made possible by the generous funding of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. The Fonds would not be possible without the donations of records and material made by representatives of the McConnell family. The McGill University Archives would like to thank Dr. William Fong and Mr. Nicolas McConnell for their time and expertise in the initial identification and organization of the records. MG 4240/Acc.04-114 2 FONDS DESCRIPTION TITLE: JOHN WILSON McCONNELL FONDS DATES: ca1898-1980 EXTENT: 13.6 m [textual]; 206 photographs; 7 moving images [4 16mm ; 400’, 1 16mm ; 2000’, 2 VHS cassettes] Biographical Information Beginnings in Business John Wilson McConnell was born in Muskoka, Ontario 01 July 1877 to John McConnell and Margaret Anne (née Wilson) McConnell, both immigrants to Canada of Ulster-Scots origin.
    [Show full text]
  • Société Historique De Dorval Historical Society
    SOCIÉTÉ HISTORIQUE DE DORVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1941 2016 Volume 27 SOCIÉTÉ HISTORIQUE DE DORVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY La Société historique de Dorval, fondée en 1984, croit que l'histoire de Dorval a de l'importance pour ses citoyens et devrait être étudiée et conservée. La Société est un organisme sans but lucratif ouvert à quiconque est intéressé à l'histoire de Dorval. La Société est appuyée par le Service des loisirs et de la culture de la cité de Dorval. La Société travaille en collaboration avec le Musée de Dorval. The Dorval Historical Society was founded in 1984 with the belief that the history of Dorval is of interest to its citizens and it should, therefore, be studied and preserved. The Society is a non-profit organization and membership is open to anyone interested in the history of Dorval. The Society is supported by the Leisure and Culture Department of the City of Dorval. The Society also works in close collaboration with the Dorval Museum. Meilleurs voeux de succès soutenu à la Société historique de Dorval de la part des citoyens et citoyennes de la Cité de Dorval Photo: Dick Nieuwendyk CHRISTOPHER VON RORETZ MICHEL HÉBERT MARGO HERON EDGAR ROULEAU CLAUDE VALIQUET MARC DORET DANIEL da CHÃO Best wishes for continued success to the Dorval Historical Society from the citizens of the City of Dorval MUSÉE DE DORVAL DORVAL MUSEUM 1850, chemin du Bord-du-Lac, Dorval Ouvert du jeudi au dimanche 13 h - 16 h 30 Open Thursday to Sunday 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Entrée libre - Free admission Nous cherchons toujours des bénévoles pour se joindre à l'équipe.
    [Show full text]
  • The Canadian Who's Who
    ^mt (ftoUegc of l^gricultutc Kt (flnrnell MniuerBttg atliata. ». 11. ffitbrarg bOi men uiiiversiiy .idrarv F 1033.C23 The Canadian who's who. 3 1924 014 019 255 ADVERTISEMENTS. TD6e (Sanadian Railway J^eeident Jnsuranee Qo. OTTAWA, CANADA. Atjthobized Capital, $500,000.00 SuBSCKiBjiD Capjtal, - ", " " 250,000.00; Issues more Personal Accident Pplioies than any other Company in Canada. OFFICERS: I Denis Muepht, President. _J0HN^El^.O, H. W. Pearsgn, , . , See.-Treastlrer. ' General Mgr. AH classes of Persob^ Accident,' gicfaiesB, Eiiployers' or other Liability, Compensation and Collective Insurance Business transacted. Agents Wanted in Unkepkbsbnted Districts, APPLY TO GENERAL MANAGER, 128 WELLINGTON ST., OTTAWA, ONT. SUN LIFE Assurance Company OF CANADA Head Office^ - - Montreal Chief Office for the United Kingdom, 93 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.G. Assets Dec. Slst, 1909, $32,804,997 Business in FoKGB, - 8129,913,669 R. MACAULAY, President. S. H. EWING, Vice-President,,', .' F. B. MACAULAY, F.I.A., Secretary and Managing Director. i — , ^^ FOUNDED 1806 THE LAW UNION &ROCK INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED OF LONDON (In which are Incorporated the Law Union & Crown and the Rock Insurance Companlel^). Assets exceed S4S,006,060.00. Over S5,O0O,OOO Investea in Canada CLAIMS PAID EXCEED SlSS.OOO.OOO.Op FrRE AND ACCIDENT RISKS ACCEPTED. CANIDIAN HEID OFFICE: 112 St. JAMES STREET, Corner PLAGE D'ARMES, MONTREAL. Agents wanted in unrepresented towns in Canada. J. E. E. DICKSON, Canadian Manager. Alex. S. Matthew. Manager; W. D. Aitken, Sub-Manager, Accident Department. ADVERTISEMENTS. General Accident ASSURANCE COMPANY OF CANADA Personal Accident. Property Damage. Health. , Liability. Steam Boiler Insurance. Manager forCanada, C.
    [Show full text]
  • Newspaper-Proprietors-In-British-Quebec-Lower-Canada-From-1764-To-Confederation
    Newspaper proprietors, editors, publishers and reporters in British Quebec, Lower Canada, Québec from 1764 onward. « https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/672877/250-ans-the-quebec-chronicle- telegraph The Quebec Gazette / La Gazette de Québec du 6 juin 1764 The Quebec Gazette – 1764-06-21 https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/672877/250-ans-the-quebec-chronicle- telegraph 1 Fleury Mesplet 1734-1794 Founder of the Montreal Gazette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleury_Mesplet 2 Pierre du Calvet 1735-1786 Justice of the peace at the Court of Common Pleas for the district of Montréal. His public denunciation of the abuses of justice by certain judges among his colleagues attracted him both friends and enemies. In 1784, he published The Case of Peter du Calvet to let his cause be known. https://www.septentrion.qc.ca/catalogue/appel-a-la-justice-de-l-etat-de-pierre-du- calvet http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/du_calvet_pierre_4F.html http://www.biographi.ca/fr/bio/du_calvet_pierre_4F.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_du_Calvet 3 The Quebec Gazette 1764-1842 https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/hq/2014-v20-n2-hq01551/72723ac.pdf 5 Page document online La Gazette de Québec 1764-1842 https://www.patrimoine- culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=26761&type=pge Quebec Chronicle Telegraph 1764-1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Chronicle-Telegraph https://www.qctonline.com/ The Montreal Gazette 1778-present-day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Gazette The Quebec Mercury 1805-1853 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Mercury The Montreal Herald 1811-1957 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Montreal_Herald La Minerve 1826-1837 & 1842-1899 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Minerve Montreal Star 1869-1979 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Star La Presse 1884-2017 plus online edition https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Presse_(Montr%C3%A9al) - :~:text=La%20Presse%20est%20un%20quotidien%20qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9coi s%20fond%C3%A9%20en,%C3%A9dition%20imprim%C3%A9e%20a%20cess %C3%A9%20le%2030%20d%C3%A9cembre%202017.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019-2020 Focus
    19–20 F[O]CUS medicine 20 The post-antibiotic world: How ready are we, really? + Working your way into industry PHOTO BY JON ROU Scalpel... sponge... wand by Philip Fine As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, John Hsu, MDCM’61, used a few tricks to convince his young patients to be examined. Literally. “If you produce a coin or a candy and then you make it disappear, then the kid starts examining you,” says the hobby magician. And voilà: license to move a hip or check a brace. “You would see the look on their face. They get delighted, all of a sudden. And then you know you’ve won the batt le.” Hsu spent many years practising what’s known as table-top magic, employing items such as cards, coins or sponge balls. As a McGill student, magic would sometimes be just the trick to get him and a friend out of a social obligation. They’d perform their routine, leave the crowd speechless, and make a swift exit. Hsu, who is now retired, worked for most of his career at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Los Angeles, where he became Chair of Surgery. He would oft en take his staff to shows at Magic Castle, a renowned private nightclub in Hollywood for magicians and magic enthusiasts to which he belongs. Hsu’s stories of Montreal in the 1950s sound, dare we say, magical. In the winter, he would head to Mount Royal with pals from Nursing, who would bring metal bed pans to use as sleds to careen down the slopes.
    [Show full text]