The Silhouette: Please introduce yourself.  

Tinson Chen: My name is Tinson Chen. I'm a fourth-year student in the arts and science program and combining with computer science. I use he and him pronouns and I am the President of the Students’ Association of Arts and Science Students and the [Vice President] of engagement of the McMaster AI Society.  

How did you become interested in AI?  

The pivot to the liberal arts was a decision I made near the end of high school. Once I'd gotten into the program and knew I wanted to stay, I got involved with the student politics of [the program]. I was a year [representative], senior program advisor and now the president. It was a good last opportunity to bring back a bunch of sorts of traditions that the last pre-pandemic year of students know. The reason I got into AI was that it's the most cutting-edge thing. The way I started with Mac AI was that I was a humanities and social science coordinator since they all have different faculty coordinators. For science and engineering, it's clearer how it relates to AI. Whereas, in the humanities and social sciences, [there’s] less obvious connection to machine learning. So, my big role was getting humanities and social science people to be interested in it.  

Why did you make that turn to liberal arts?  

I wanted to keep my options open. It was the end of high school and I was talking to my guidance counsellor. I was interested in a lot of stuff, into trivia too, and she told me: "Hey, there's this program that's pretty reputable and let’s you pursue everything you want to do." She was talking about artsci. I also really wanted a well-rounded education and to avoid tunnel vision for AI. I think the liberal arts can really inform the philosophy and the ethics of AI.  

Considering the breadth of your interests, do you know what you would like to pursue after your undergraduate degree?   

My interests, academically at least, are to do with natural language and getting computers to create natural language. If we were to create a computer that could actually convince a human of its humanity, that is sort of equivalent to solving the problem. I feel like the channel of language is the key to what we call intelligence. So that's what motivates me and why I'm pursuing a minor in linguistics as well. Non-academically, I wouldn't mind taking a couple years to cook around different places, learn different techniques and travel a little bit. You know, just learn the ins and outs of cooking.  

I feel like the channel of language is the key to what we call intelligence.

Tinson Chen

When did you become passionate about cooking?  

Wow, this is really making me realize how much I've changed going into university. This was only for the last bit of high school. Once I got to university, I was in Bates and had a kitchen. This gave me the chance to cook a lot more and get the ingredients to experiment with.  

Is there anything else you'd like to share?  

Maybe Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill time. You can do as much as you'd like. You just have to do it all shoddily.

You can do as much as you'd like. You just have to do it all shoddily.

Tinson Chen

C/O Tony Sebastian, Unsplash

While we may perceive ourselves as worlds away, we’re much closer than we think

Let’s set this story during Welcome Week of 2019. Surrounded by other 2023s, I ventured into the thick swarm of students on the field outside Burke Science Building. Before I could take a breath, I was asked a question that all of us had heard countless times during that week.

“What program are you in? Like, are you a science kid or an English kid?” 

I’d answer with “science kid” and move on with my life. No big deal, right? Well, not exactly. As I went through two more years of university, I discovered there was a greater divide in the sciences and humanities than I had first realized. Science kids were the kind that would rather solve complex chemistry problems than go near an essay. Humanities kids could write 20-page essays but god forbid they took a physics class.

As far from the truth as these generalizations may be, they do exist and they do persist. The general public’s perception of students who pursue science and students who pursue the humanities are closer to these reductive statements than we may think. 

This issue has been discussed at length, not only by students like us, but also by renowned professors across the world. In 2018, the University of King’s College in Halifax held a roundtable discussion on this exact topic. These scholars, particularly Evelyn Fox Keller, talked about the territorial criticism they felt as an expert in history, physics and biology. The roundtable came to the conclusion that the sciences and humanities are often presented with the same problems, such as climate change, but rarely work together to solve them.

Not only does this divide affect worldly problems, but it also affects us all on a smaller scale of interests and extracurricular activities. Why are only science students expected to take on research positions? This rush to get involved in research activities is a constant discussion in the echo chamber of undergraduate science students, often with no mention of research efforts in the social sciences and humanities.

With such a binary in expected extracurriculars, this frame of thinking has also found its way into job interviews. Mahnoor Malik, a third-year health sciences student, reflected on her experience of this phenomenon. 

With such a binary in expected extracurriculars, this frame of thinking has also found its way into job interviews.

“I was in an interview, hoping to get a position writing for this website I’m really fond of. The interview was going great, but they did comment on how my writing experience was largely scientific. I understand where they were coming from, but it was also shocking to see how my scientific writing experience wasn’t valued as much as other writing experiences were,” explained Malik. 

This experience isn’t unique to one individual. The separation between these two fields has led to a lack of understanding of each other from both sides. By allowing this distance to exist, we inevitably divide ourselves into different social and professional groups. 

By allowing this distance to exist, we inevitably divide ourselves into different social and professional groups. 

We allow these preconceived notions to affect our judgement of each other. From a STEM perspective especially, we’re all somewhat guilty of assuming that non-STEM programs have fewer career opportunities. However, graduates of social sciences programs not only have similar employment rates to STEM graduates, but are also valued by employers for their critical thinking,  emotional intelligence and ethical reasoning. 

On a personal level, I have had a passion for writing for as long as I can remember. However, I assumed that once I chose my path of health sciences, writing could be nothing more than a hobby. My label was now to be science and science alone. 

Imagine my surprise when I joined the Silhouette and found just as many science kids as humanities kids as arts kids on our staff. In a short couple of months, this team has opened my eyes to the fact that these insurmountable obstacles that we created are largely imaginative. 

As students, we need to take it upon ourselves to throw this arbitrary barrier to the wind. By doing so, we gain the chance to learn more about ourselves, each other, and the plethora of opportunities available to not just X or Y students, but to all of us. 

There are benefits of taking humanities courses for students in any program

C/O Madeline Neumann

By: Ardena Bašić, Contributor

McMaster University’s integrated business and humanities program is a complete game-changer for commerce education in Canada. Combining practical business elements with ethics and other humanity-based courses teaches students to learn the value of making a sustainable and effective difference as opposed to focusing on the bottom line.

However, it is not just business programs that could benefit from integration with the humanities. While the argument has been made for mandatory ethics courses, I believe that every program should contain at least a few humanities courses for a variety of purposes.

For one, the humanities help us think and reflect, as opposed to simply memorizing. In most science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, answers, concepts and theories can be memorized. Most are logical, require technical skills and have definite “yes” or “no” answers. 

The humanities, on the other hand, are at the other end of that continuum. When we consider major topics like philosophy, linguistics and ethics, there often is no “correct” answer for significant research questions.

We must think about our positionality in society, our previous biases and our own opinions to formulate our answers. This is invaluable in fostering the next generation of critical thinkers.

The IBH program specifically mixes core business courses like leadership, accounting and marketing, with humanities courses like ethics, linguistics and community outreach. Through this, we know that we have to consider and be tolerant of all perspectives on business-resulted issues.

We also have more awareness about what problems affecting our society may look like and how they are affected by language, ethics and the world as a whole. When we lack this mindset, we are limited to our own personal perspective and that of the traditional business focus: profit.

Rather, the IBH program is creating a future where business leaders consider the people and planet of the business world first and then the profit.

Rather, the IBH program is creating a future where business leaders consider the people and planet of the business world first and then the profit.

Sciences and technology programs could also benefit from the abstract nature of the humanities. Besides being able to think more critically considering the logical nature of most scientific concepts, the humanities can foster curiosity, creativity and empathy. We can then discover new or covert problems that need to be solved through new engineering methods or pharmaceutical research. 

The creativity that comes from looking beyond the answer, questioning why and how it has come to be, alongside the understanding and tolerance for everyone else’s opinions and how they can congregate can construct a more enriching STEM community.

Moreover, enrollment in liberal arts programs is steadily dropping, suggesting that many people are not considering the humanities as much when choosing their educational programs. If students are to experience these different subjects, they could find that they truly enjoy them and want to pursue something different than traditional science and medical-related degrees.

Even if they do choose to stay in their current program, any participation in any humanities courses has been proven to foster critical, clear and creative thinking: an asset for a workforce in any industry or sector. 

Even if they do choose to stay in their current program, any participation in any humanities courses has been proven to foster critical, clear and creative thinking: an asset for a workforce in any industry or sector.

Overall, we need to move away from the narrative that arts and humanities-related degrees are just not as profitable or worthy as STEM-related degrees. Our brain is one of our most powerful and complex assets; the humanities stretch and challenge it in a way that is incomparable to other programs.

 When considering the next steps in your educational journey, consider expanding your course or program selection to include the extensive humanities offerings. A linguistics, ethics or gender studies course might just completely change the way you think and how you live your life for the better.

This article has been edited as of Feb. 27, 2020

A previously published version of this article stated that Giroux phoned his daughter to ask about Casablancas. This has been corrected to state that he asked his son.

This article is part one of a two part series. Read part two here.

The latter half of the 2010 decade brought with it the rise of various right-winged movements throughout the world. Henry Giroux, a McMaster professor in the department of English and cultural studies, felt a sense of urgency; that the public needed to be educated in order to advance our democracy and combat the right side of politics. We recently had the chance to catch up with Giroux after he published his newest book, The Terror of the Unforeseen, which includes a forward by Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes.

INTRODUCTION TO CASABLANCAS:

In 2016, Giroux received a phone call from an agent asking if he knew who Julian Casablancas was, to which he responded, “No, I don’t”. He then phoned his son to ask who the mysterious rock star was.

Casablancas brought a film crew to Giroux’s Hamilton home and interviewed the professor about his work. This was the start of the duo’s friendship. Giroux then asked Casablancas if he wanted to write a forward in The Terror of the Unforeseen to open up his narrative to a much-wider audience. 

After the forward was written, Casablancas interviewed Giroux in front of a live audience at a  McMaster Library event at The Westdale Theatre (1014 King St. W.) on Oct. 24, 2019. The event was entitled “The Looming Threat of Fascist Politics”.

EARLY YEARS:

Giroux was born in Providence, Rhode Island, living in a working-class neighbourhood. He obtained a basketball scholarship from the University of Southern Maine and graduated from the university to become a high school teacher. He received a scholarship to complete his schooling at Carnegie-Mellon University, graduating with a PhD in 1977.

After becoming a professor at Boston University, Giroux began researching what education looks like at universities; what does it mean to get a university education

In 1981, Giroux’s research inspired his second book, Theory and Resistance in Education: a Pedagogy for the Opposition. In Theory and Resistance, he defends that education has become a privatized endeavour that does not prioritizes the public’s best interests, including the interests of students. This privatization has become apparent through the promotion of maths and sciences, and the undermining of social and behavioural teachings. Giroux concludes that universities are no longer producing public intellectuals, people who think and reason critically, with the absence of humanities and social sciences.

When Giroux went up for tenure at Boston University, everyone but the president of the University wanted to give him the teaching position. 

“[The president] was the east coast equivalent of Ronald Reagan, and a really ruthless guy.. he was denying tenure to everybody on the left [side of the political spectrum],” said Giroux.

Giroux moved to Miami University where he started the first cultural studies centre in the United States. He was then offered an endowed chair at Pennsylvania State University. When the opportunity came to apply to McMaster University, Giroux leapt at the offer and was hired in 2004.

THE TERROR OF THE UNFORESEEN:

Casablancas joined Giroux’s project because he saw the value in Giroux’s ideology.

“The idea for the book came out of a certain sense of incredible urgency . . . motivated by the election of Donald Trump and the rise of right-winged movements throughout the world,” said Giroux.

The author coined the term “neoliberal fascism”: a cross between racist ideology and a ruling financial elite class that disregards lower classes. This term is the basis of Giroux’s book, which describes how neoliberal fascism affects universities and media, along with how it has contributed to the creation of alt-right culture.

“I tried to take seriously the notion that politics follows culture, meaning that, you can’t really talk about politics unless you talk about the way in which people are experiencing their everyday lives and the problems that confront them,” said Giroux.

He believes that fascism never goes away, that it will always manifest itself in some context. Giroux used the U.S. as an example. The wealth and power held by the governing financial elite has created a state that does not care about the inequalities faced by most of its citizens.

Giroux links the above issues to the war on youth that much of his work has focused on, with the belief that youth are a long-term investment that are being written out of democracy.

CAMPUS POLITICS:

Giroux sees elements of youth being written out of democracy on our own campus. He also recognized that neoliberal ideology could have been a contributing cause to the province’s financial cuts to universities.

“The [ideal] model for education is now patterned after a business culture and with that, it seems to me, comes with an enormous set of dangers and anxieties,” stated Giroux.

According to Giroux, universities used to operate as public good; however, this is no longer their priority. Instead, universities are constantly worried about their bottom line, due in part to neoliberalism. This is especially evident in the elimination of or lack of funding for programs and courses that bring in less money for universities. Giroux cites the example of liberal arts education, which he believes is vital for every student to obtain. He believes this field teaches students a general understanding of our interactions with the world and how to become a socially responsible citizen; however, Giroux believes that liberal arts are being neglected in favour of teaching science and math.

While he understands that universities run deficits, this need to meet the bottom line can open the door for them to become influenced to opt-in to privatization and corporate influence. Giroux believes the only type of influence major corporations should have on campus are in the forms of sponsorships to allow the university to carry out its business as students are neither clients nor products.

“We have an obligation as educators, not to prepare students for just the work, but to prepare them for the world and what it means.” 

When asked about the Ford government’s stance on OSAP cuts, Giroux believes that the government has a limited notion of investment, likely stemming from neoliberalist ideals.

“You don’t invest in students, for them to return profits . . . you invest in students and do everything you can to make sure that they can distinguish between meaningful work and meaningless work; that they can have some vision of the future that’s rooted in democratic values, that has some sense of compassion for what it means to live in a world in which we’re completely interdependent.

The Terror of the Unforeseen is the 71st book by Henry Giroux. 

“I write because I believe that writing matters, I believe that elevating ideas into the public realm may help change the way people view the world,” said Giroux.

Stay tuned for part two of this series featuring our interview with Julian Casablancas.

 

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Photo by Cindy Cui / Photo Editor 

By Kayla Freeman, Contributor

University is hard, no doubt about it. With the constant stress that many students face, it is easy to see why they may look for easier and less strenuous classes when possible. This is where “bird courses” come into play. The idea surrounding these types of subjects is that one can fly through the course with little to no effort to achieve relatively high marks, such as an 11 or 12.

In reality, bird courses do not exist. Being successful in a course is largely dependent on the skills of individual students, their timetable, their motivation or their effort. To be fair, the harshness of a teaching assistant’s grading or a professor’s teaching style are among other contributing factors that can affect your mark. However, these issues are generally consistent across all courses. 

Being successful in a course is largely dependent on the skills of individual students, their timetable, their motivation or their effort.

Courses in certain faculties have become associated with easier courses or workloads. Faculties such as humanities and social sciences are often the faculties that are considered to have a greater proportion of “bird courses” including courses such as microeconomics or medical terminology. This brings a negative attitude towards students and staff in certain faculties or programs. For example, students that are in a class for personal interest may feel that their efforts are worth less if they are investing time and effort into a course with a bird reputation. In a society centred around those in the fields of science and engineering, faculties such as the humanities and social sciences are often belittled and have their legitimacy second-guessed. 

Faculties such as humanities and social sciences are often the faculties that are considered to have a greater proportion of “bird courses” including courses such as microeconomics or medical terminology.

Being a part of the social science faculty, I can tell you about the effects that the perception surrounding bird courses or even “bird programs” have on other students. For example, many current students in social science transferred into the program after their first year, which is perceived by some as a step-down from programs in science or engineering. This is disheartening for people that worked hard to get to where they are, who are enjoying their courses, and/or who continue to strive to maintain a high GPA in their program. It almost creates this hierarchy among different faculties, giving other students the idea that social science courses are not as worthy or respectable compared to others.

Some students choose to take bird courses only because they have heard that it will be easy. What they may have failed to consider is that if these courses are from a different faculty, they will likely be taught in a completely different manner than what students are used to. This, along with a disinterest in course material may result in poor performance. For these reasons, bird courses typically have low class participation and general class morale. There is no inherent problem in seeking out less taxing courses based on your own preferences and strengths. Some students may pursue this in order to balance challenging mandatory requirements. However, looking down on others and assuming their intentions and capabilities based on the courses they take is not okay, as it promotes a negative mentality and division among students and faculties. 

For these reasons, bird courses typically have low class participation and general class morale.

People might be less likely to engage in the course content or with their fellow classmates if they view that the course is beneath them or an easy A. Rather than focusing on the bird-related differences between programs, I believe that everyone should simply embrace the variations that are inherent to each program. Within the same course, some students will struggle and others may not, but those who struggle will likely face difficulty in other courses. 

Each program and faculty offers unique skills and abilities that can provide students with benefits across many disciplines. As each course has something different to offer, we may as well slow down and try to appreciate and understand the content rather than fly through it.  

 

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Photo by Kyle West

By: Saba Manzoor

The federal government has awarded $3.3 million in grants to 72 social sciences and humanities researchers at McMaster.

These grants are a part of the federal government’s social sciences and humanities research council’s “Insight Development Grant” program.

McMaster was one of nearly 80 post-secondary institutions across the country to receive part of the $141 million overall grant funding provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

This announcement comes a few months after McMaster maintained its rank as Canada’s most research-intensive university on the list of Canada’s top 50 research universities.

Funding through government programs, such as the SSHRC-IDG, continues to play a significant role in establishing the university’s rank on the list.

In addition to being lauded for the quality of their research, McMaster’s humanities and social science researchers have also been recognized for the communicability of their research.

In particular, they were the recipients of the 2017 SSHRC award of excellence for communications, which recognized the accessibility of McMaster research for non-expert audiences.

One of this year’s research grant recipients is Jeffrey Denis, an associate professor in the department of sociology.

Denis’ funds are being put towards a collaborative project with Reconciliation Kenora, a non-profit organization comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in Northwestern Ontario.

The goal of Denis’ project is to improve local relationships and better understand the reconciliation efforts that prevail in this part of the province.

“Our plan is to conduct a series of video-recorded sharing circles with Anishinaabe, Metis and settler residents about what reconciliation means, the barriers and enablers to achieving it and how to engage more people in the process,” said Denis.

Brent McKnight, an assistant professor with the DeGroote School of Business, is another grant recipient this year.

Through this funding, McKnight will be evaluating how external considerations, such as environmental, social and governance factors, contribute to financial investments.

Specifically, McKnight will be examining how these factors play into a retail market investment decisions.

“There are few sources of funding for social science research and this multi-year grant is critical,” said McKnight.  

Mark Norman, another grant recipient, is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of health, aging and society at McMaster.

With the funding, Norman will be investigating the organization and social meanings of sport and physical recreation in Ontario youth detention centres.

According to Norman, despite their popularity in youth correctional facilities, evidence suggests that implementing sports programs for at-risk youth produces mixed outcomes.

Norman’s project aims to reconcile the knowledge gap and explore why these programs are yielding these results.

“It is crucial that Canadian governments and post-secondary institutions invest in social sciences and humanities research, particularly projects that investigate pressing social problems or provide insight on how to ameliorate social injustices in our society,” explains Norman.

Other research projects funded through the grant cover a wide range of topics, including the history of smallpox and the effects of taxation on trade.

 

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Graphic by Razan Samara

By: Kian Yousefi Kousha

As one word finds itself next to another, the ideas in our mind begin to fill pages. These words have the ability to further our imagination and change our lives. Whether conveyed through the dystopian world created by George Orwell or the sentimental spirits of L. M. Montgomery’s characters, words are powerful and writing freely is an indispensable tool.

The concept of free writing has found its way to McMaster University through a new mandatory writing course; Voice and Vision: Words to Change the World, or Humanities 1VV3. The course is offered in the fall and taught by professor Jeffery Donaldson.

The main purpose of the course is to refine students’ thinking, problem-solving skills and most importantly, improve their writing by providing students with writing opportunities they may not have had before.

While the course addresses the expectations for writing in the faculty of humanities and prepares first year students for their undergraduate education, Donaldson hopes that the course will also address the misgivings students’ may have about their own writing.

“One of my main focuses in the course was to find a way of helping students not to think of writing as an onerous activity that they don’t enjoy [or a] writing style that is not natural to them ... I wanted to find a way of organizing a course that would actually be a celebration of the creative energy that is a part of every student’s identity. At that age, they are full of ideas and verbal energy,” explained Donaldson.

The course is taking another approach to writing at the university level by simultaneously celebrating students’ own creativity and preparing them for formal writing in the humanities program. In fact, the core of the course is a free writing assignment where students are asked to write 30 pages of prose on their own topic of choice, without any specifications.

“Our expectation is that [writing 30 pages] is more writing than any of them has ever done. They are getting used to generating prose without any sense that they have to write in any particular way and our goal was to show them that the more writing you do, the more natural your writing becomes,” explained Donaldson.

Throughout the semester, Donaldson saw improvements in the students’ writing. The final 10 pages of the free writing assignment was a major indication of students’ overall growth over time. Donaldson also approached the course by representing writing as a thinking tool for students.

Nader Nagy, one of the students who was enrolled in Humanities 1VV3 this past fall semester, witnessed improvements in his writing. This improvement was attributed to Donaldson’s teaching and approach towards writing through the course’s exercises.

“I want [students] to think of writing as something that is always going on in your mind and you release that and then gradually, as you learn to work with your writing, you adapt it to these [formal writing] constraints,” said Donaldson.

For example, students are encouraged to use first person pronouns as they make their own arguments, which is an opportunity that is considered counterintuitive for formal writing in other courses.

John Stultz believes that the mandatory course taught him and other students how to properly convey themselves by focusing first on learning how to organize and communicate ideas coherently.

Sarah Woodburn considers her experience with the course as a method to ease the path of first year students into essay writing, without enduring the pressure of formal writing.

“It is definitely a new way and a fresh way of looking at English as well as essay writing in a different light that allows students a little more freedom in terms of their writing,” said Woodburn.

Donaldson is looking forward to tracking students’ progress in their four years of undergraduate studies in humanities. He hopes to observe changes in their quality of writing as an aftereffect of taking Humanities 1VV3. ​

While it will be interesting to observe the long term effects on students’ writing, for now the accounts of individuals involved in the course speak to its unique position within the faculty of humanities. The course focuses on reinventing students’ experiences with writing and giving power back to the students’ voices and visions through words.

 

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Photo from Silhouette Photo Archives

By: Natalie Clark

On Nov. 15, the McMaster Alumni Advancement Committee organized a lecture and exhibit at the McMaster Museum of Art to highlight how the Bertrand Russell Archives made their way to McMaster University. Guest speakers included archives senior research associate Andrew Bone and archives librarian Myron Groover.

The lecture focused on the significance of Bertrand Russell, how the archives made their way to McMaster in 1968, and the significance that McMaster holds as the home of the Bertrand Russell Archives.

Before the archives arrived at McMaster, there was much speculation internationally as to who they would be given to. In 1967, Bertrand Russell gave his work to the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, a charitable organization that he was a part of, and left it to them to ultimately decide who to sell the archives to.

There were two conditions upon which the organization would consider when choosing a potential buyer: that the material end up in an institution open to the public, and that the papers and library of his work stay together at the same institution.

Cambridge University in the United Kingdom was the biggest contender for the eventual home of the archives, but the opportunity faded fast when the funding did not materialize. Another strong contender was the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

The deal put in place with the Harry Ransom Center eventually fell through and gave way to McMaster’s chance at owning the archives. In 1967, McMaster was a small, recently secularized institution, and was mostly known as a science, technology and engineering school.

McMaster had recently made headlines for its ownership of a nuclear reactor on campus, which is still located on campus today.

“McMaster humanities needed their own nuclear reactor,” said Groover.

McMaster was determined to acquire the archives through the combination of public and private funds and was eventually able to make it happen.

As a result of this purchase, McMaster expanded and drew attention to its philosophy department, which grew rapidly after the arrival of the archives in 1968.

It is hard to believe that the archives ended up at McMaster despite the high demand for them globally. Bone notes that the sellers of the archives initially had “minimal interest in McMaster.”

Today, McMaster is home to the archives, library and copyright to the unpublished works of Bertrand Russell, making up one of Canada’s foremost rare book archives. McMaster continues to expand its collection of the archives of Bertrand Russell and has devoted the campus to the home of Bertrand Russell’s life’s work and memory.

“You can’t overstate the import of this acquisition and this archive to McMaster both as an institution and as a home for research,” said Groover.

In addition to advancing research at McMaster, the archives have also attracted researchers and historians from across the globe. The new Bertrand Russell Centre, which houses thousands of original books and documents, opened this past summer and sits on the corner of Sterling Street and Forsyth Avenue.

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By: Vanessa Polojac

From Nov. 10 to the 18, Peter Cockett’s Theatre and Film class hold the world premiere of Barbara Fuch’s English translation of Women and Servants.

Women and Servants, written by famous Spanish playwright Lope De Vega, has been lost for over 400 years.

But in 2014, University of California at Los Angeles English professor Barbara Fuchs rediscovered the manuscript hidden at the back of a library while vacationing in Madrid.

The Fall Major Production is a yearly event held at McMaster. It is a required for the students in Theatre and Film 3S06 to be a part of the play although casting is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at the university. This is the first year the production will be held in L.R. Wilson Hall. The building offers many innovative areas for the crew to work with.

“This building is an enormous step-up and improvement from the Robinson Memorial Theatre,” explained Cockett.

“One of the many new elements that the L.R. Wilson building has is a trampoline grid for the lighting. Usually in other buildings there would need to be a 50-foot ladder that is much less sufficient.”

Women and Servants was chosen by Cockett when doing research and planning for the Theatre and Film program in the spring.

When approaching Women and Servants in the fall production class, Cockett and his students were all captivated by the excessive emotions of the men in the play and the comparatively calm intuition of the women, whose actions drive the plot.

“The research was about the performance of gender on European stages in the 1600s. The questions that were asked were asked in my research were: what did the boys learn from the female performers? In what ways were the boys different from the female performers? How were the women performing femininity? In the summer I went to a press conference where I met Barbara and we related these questions to Women and Servants. This is when I concluded we had to put on this production,” said Cockett.

When holding the open casting calls, Cockett and his class didn’t cast people strictly based on their gender identities. Cockett wanted audience members not to be able to assume what characters are based on their actors’ identity alone.

“While this would have been extremely unlikely in Lope de Vega’s world, it is more familiar to us today, and that has added advantage of reminding us that these are performers who are making choices about how to play the radicalized, class and gender roles assigned to their characters,” said Cockett.

Even though the play was written in the early 1600s, there is a feminist theme that is evidently portrayed throughout the plot.

The protagonists, sisters Luciana and Violante, take control of their own love lives and fate despite their assigned roles in a patriarchal society. The playwright reverses the hierarchy by having the servants, who are expected to be loyal, go against their masters for their own personal desires.

“The play investigates the social relationships of past societies. The playwright reveals the 16th century society to be more complex and less conservative than we might be inclined to imagine,” explained Cockett.   

Cockett, along with assistant directors Toni Holmes and Pricilla Lou, hope to introduce the idea, radical in its day, that one’s social identity is something that is performed rather than given.

“There was a time when we were considering an all-female cast. We were breaking down the male characters and how they were reducing stereotypical male roles and that’s why we chose to stick with male actors,” said Holmes.

“Our performance celebrates our relative freedom to be who we desire to be, and love who we desire to love, but also, in its playful way, it asks us to consider the enduring influence social power structures have on the free expression of love,” added Cockett.

Cockett hopes that audiences will enjoy the mischief and antics of these once lost characters and uses their story as an opportunity to explore historical and contemporary questions about gender performance.

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McMaster undergraduate programs have been making waves all over, so much so that the Atlantic, an American political magazine, recently featured the new integrated business and humanities program.

The program was spearheaded by McMaster professors Emad Mohammad and Anna Moro and enables students to both pursue a business major and receive a robust humanities education.

“The humanities aspect is what makes it, in part, more than a typical business degree,” said Moro. “A foundation in the humanities is what makes some of the most progressive thinkers and business leaders.”

In his article in the Atlantic, however, Jon Marcus paints a grim picture, highlighting that, while business programs continue to be sought after, the popularity of the humanities has languished.

In particular, the number of students pursuing a humanities degree in both Canada and the United States has fallen. Marcus notes that, though McMaster’s integrated business and humanities program sought to fill 80 seats this year, only 51 students enrolled.

According to Mohammad and Moro, Marcus omitted key data from the article. Although only 51 students enrolled in integrated business and humanities this year, the program received 452 applications, and only 315 applicants made it to the supplementary application phase.

In addition, the program generated a yield, which includes the percent of students who accept their offer, of about 30 per cent, which is three per cent higher than McMaster’s annual yield for Ontario high school students in 2014, the most recent data point publicly available from the university’s Office of Institutional Research and Analysis.

According to Mohammad, the integrated business and humanities program’s yield was also comparatively higher than that of McMaster’s commerce program.

“We don’t think future enrolment is a problem,” said Moro. “I think we got more than expected applications for the first year.”

While the article published in the Atlantic exaggerated the lack of demand for integrated business and humanities, the program’s future popularity will, in part, depend on the first cohort’s experience.

“It’s very interesting to be linking information learned in one class to the other classes. We already have four group projects, such all seem to be very interesting and engaging topics,” said Yael Morris, an integrated business and humanities student.

“All of our classes are interactive and encourage group work, which allows us to work on communication and teamwork skills,” said Chloe Benalcazar, another student in the program.

William Stephenson, another integrated business and humanities student, appreciates that the program has created a tight-knit community for him.

Morris and Benalcazar, however, highlight concerns with their peace studies course.

“I would like to see a change in our peace studies course by having more structure, direction and organization. It seems to be very slow and that we’re not learning as much as we could,” said Morris. “I find that my classmates and I are continuously lost during the lectures and that we aren’t learning to the highest potential.”

Benalcazar questions the relevance of the course, not being able to see the intersection between peace studies and commerce.

Moreover, Stephenson wishes he could take a humanities course, rather than the required commerce one, as an elective in third and fourth year.

“As we currently do not have room for electives until third year, I believe that the interests of the class should be taken into account when designing the curriculum for the courses,” said Benalcazar. “For example, if the class is interested in international business or wants to learn more about the environment and sustainability, that interest should be taken into account and implemented in the following years.”

To improve the program’s reputation and increase enrolment in the future, integrated business and humanities students’ feedback will need to be acknowledged.

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