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Sunday, April 3, 2022

Reflections on Shadowpox: The Cytokine Storm at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre

Less than a year before the pandemic, on 12 March 2019, peer health interns Zanele Melapi and Sibulele Bontshi reflected on their participation in the "citizen science fiction" storyworld Shadowpox: The Cytokine Storm, at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre, Masiphumelele, South Africa. 

 


Transcripts

Saturday, March 26, 2022

AMR AR Game Jam!

This week, the students of my course FILM 1123: Writing for Games and Interactive Media in York's Department of Cinema and Media Arts held a game jam to explore the concept of procedural rhetoric by brainstorming augmented reality (AR) games that could spread the word about the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The event was kicked off by special guest Dr. Steven J. Hoffman, Director of the Global Strategy Lab, Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University, and Scientific Director at the CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health. Huge thanks to Steven for joining us! 

One of the students in the course, Man Yiu Kingsley Wong, is also a talented photographer, and took the initiative to document the afternoon, which was particularly poignant as it was the only day of the whole term in which we gathered on campus in person.

Three-quarters of the class met outside York's Centre for Film and Theatre, right across the street from the Global Strategy Lab in the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research...

...while intrepid teaching assistants Lokchi Lam and Kurt Walker made sure the other quarter of us could participate via Zoom... 

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Media Arts Futures: In Conversation with Evan Narcisse

Update, March 17:

Here's the webinar recording!


Original post, March 1:

Please join us on March 10 for a free webinar with pop culture polymath Evan Narcisse, writer of comics, video games and animation, which I'll be hosting as part of my course Writing for Games and Interactive Media.

Evan Narcisse works as a writer and narrative design consultant in video games, comic books, and TV, often focusing on the intersection of blackness and pop culture. As a journalist and critic, he’s written for The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Kotaku, and The New York Times, in addition to teaching game journalism at New York University and appearances as an expert guest on CNN and NPR. He’s also the author of the Rise of the Black Panther graphic novel and a contributor to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Redfall, and Marvel’s Avengers. A native New Yorker, he now lives in Austin, Texas.

Presented by the Department of Cinema and Media Arts.

March 10, 2022
11:30am EST

Register HERE

Friday, January 21, 2022

Co-Creating Vaccine Confidence: An Anishinabe Theatre-Based Approach

I'm thrilled to be able to announce a new two-year project on which I'm a co-investigator, alongside the talented and lovely Joahnna Berti, Bruce Naokwegijig and Maurianne Reade, reigniting the Shadowpox collaboration we began at Debajehmujig Storytellers in 2018!

The new project is titled Co-Creating Vaccine Confidence: An Anishinabe Theatre-Based Approach to Strengthen Indigenous Youth and Young Adult Vaccination Support, and it's funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence - Indigenous Health Research Operating Grant.

The team has grown to include more great folks from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, among others, and is led by principal investigators Marion Maar, Maurianne Reade, and Mariette Sutherland. (Yes, Marion, Maurianne and Mariette – a trio of names tailor-made for a musical theatre number!)


We're now working on a 60-minute presentation for the Chiefs of Ontario Health Forum on February 23rd.

Here's some of the press the announcement has received.

Press Release



Radio


CBC Morning North: NOSM researchers trying to grow COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Indigenous youth

CBC Up North: Debajehmujig Storytellers and NOSM collaborate to fight vaccine hesitancy

Video


CTV News Northern Ontario: NOSM researchers have launched a new study that they're hoping will boost vaccine confidence among Indigenous youth

Articles


CBC Sudbury: Indigenous vaccine confidence being studied in northeastern Ontario

CTV News Northern Ontario: New study targets vaccine confidence for Indigenous youth

Sudbury Star: NOSM researchers study Indigenous vaccine confidence in North