McGill is an awfully big place, with about 300 buildings spread out over two campuses.  But most of us experience McGill in small chunks. The classrooms we attend. The research labs we work in. The libraries we frequent. The places we go to grab a bite. And, over time, we form powerful attachments to a few of those places in particular. We asked students and professors to tell us about the special spots that have become near and dear to their hearts. Here are some of their responses.

The Arts Building’s steps

English literature student Todd Plummer (Photo: Will Lew)

“I love the steps of the Arts Building at dusk in the springtime,” says Todd Plummer, an English literature student who recently concluded a one-year term as the vice-president internal of the Students’ Society of McGill University. “The sunlight comes over the mountain and reflects off of all the buildings downtown,” says Plummer. “It creates the most beautiful glow over the entire campus!” Plummer, who spent a summer at Vogue thanks to the Faculty of Arts Internship Program, is heading back to the Big Apple after he graduates this spring to take on another internship, this time at the New York Times Style Magazine.

The terrace outside the Macdonald Stewart-Raymond Complex

Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Chandra Madramootoo (Photo: Will Lew)

When Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Chandra Madramootoo, BSc’77, MSc’81, PhD’85, needs to stretch his legs, he heads out to the newly landscaped terrace located just outside the Macdonald Stewart-Raymond Complex, the focal point for much of the academic activity that takes place at the West Island-based Macdonald Campus. The terrace offers a glimpse of Lac Saint-Louis and it’s situated close to the playing field where rugby games are frequently contested. It’s also home to the statue of Sir William Macdonald, the campus’s founder. “It’s a brilliant piece of landscaping,” says Madramotoo, and a perfect spot to “enjoy the stillness, serenity and beauty of the campus.”

The Faculty Club

Economics professor William Watson lunches with colleagues at the Faculty Club (Photo: Alex Tran)

Economics professor William Watson, BA’74, may no longer be the editorial pages editor of the Ottawa Citizen (a position he held in the late nineties), but he is still a keen observer of world events. And he enjoys having access to the opinions of experts from a broad range of fields—namely, his fellow McGill professors. Watson (seen here on the left sharing a laugh with his departmental colleague Chris Ragan) and his lunchmates regularly assemble at McGill’s Faculty Club to dissect the news of the day. During this particular meal, his companions included a historian, a sociologist, an anthropologist, two engineers and a library and information studies scholar.

The McIntyre Medical Sciences Building Cafeteria

Management student Anushka Pinto (Photo: Will Lew)

When management student Anushka Pinto wants to eat outside, she makes her way toward the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building and its fifth-floor cafeteria. “It is perfect on a lovely sunny summer day, with blue skies above and sun everywhere,” says Pinto, a native of the United Arab Emirates and the president of the McGill International Students’ Network. The food is good, she says, and the ambience of the outdoor dining area, which faces downtown Montreal, is even better. “I also love it because it is relatively secret. It’s a great place to just sit, eat, think, reflect and absorb everything around you.”

The Redpath Museum

Architecture professor Avi Friedman (Photo: Alex Tran)

Architecture professor Avi Friedman, MArch’83, spends a lot of time thinking about public spaces with out-of-the-ordinary charms—the sorts of special spots that enliven communities and add a certain sparkle to their surrounding environments. His most recent book, A Place in Mind: The Search for Authenticity, focused on the importance of preserving these places. For him, the Redpath Museum is one such spot. “It has the feeling of a long-gone architecture and it is magnificently suited to display things for which it is currently used. If Indiana Jones was a professor at McGill, this is where he would probably display his artifacts.”

Islamic Studies Library

Environmental studies student Christian Elliott (Photo: Owen Egan)

Located in Morrice Hall, the Islamic Studies Library houses more than 150,000 items related to the unique contributions of the Muslim world to philosophy, literature, history, religion, science and other areas. It’s also a visual treat. The library’s octagon room is Christian Elliott’s favourite place at McGill. He praises the library’s “ornately carved wood details, the huge and expansive 20-person circular desk [where you can] spread your study material far and wide, and the 10-metre atrium space adorned with stained glass windows, where lofty ideas find their home.” An environmental studies student, Elliott is the co-founder of Developing Pictures Media, which aims to foster a better understanding of the challenges faced by people in developing countries through the use of digital media. He and fellow student Alex Pritz earned Dalai Lama Fellowships last year for a video project that connected Filipino schoolchildren with peers in Westmount.

The bridge connecting the Montreal Neurological Institute to the Royal Victoria Hospital

Associate professor of neurology Lesley Fellows (Photo: Will Lew)

Associate professor of neurology Lesley Fellows, BSc’90, MDCM’95, acknowledges that her pick isn’t exactly “a Bridge of Sighs,” at first glance, particularly in terms of its nondescript interior. But she makes a compelling case, nonetheless. It’s “a place to pause between two busy institutions and contemplate either a little slice of the beauty of Mount Royal or of downtown Montreal, depending on the window one chooses,” says Fellows. “When I walk across that bridge, it captures the shift in my own duties from neuroscientist at the MNI to clinical neurologist consulting in the Royal Vic emergency room. I take those few metres, quite literally suspended between two very different roles, as a chance to change gears while reminding myself of the existence of a wider world beyond.”

The Burnside Hall Building’s basement

Biological, biomedical and life sciences student Sarah Jameel (Photo: Owen Egan)

Biological, biomedical and life sciences student Sarah Jameel is a big fan of Burnside Hall’s basement, especially when the crunch is on to complete assignments. It’s the “one place on campus where you can get away, literally underground, regardless of whether it is hailing outside or just plain gloomy,” says Jameel, the founder of Kick the Butt, an anti-smoking organization that uses social media and fashion to persuade teens to steer clear of cigarettes. Her work with the group resulted in an invitation to take part in the World Economic Forum in 2010. Jameel says Burnside’s basement, which is open 24/7 for study purposes, is the ideal place “to spend hours without knowing what time it is, or the light of day, and still get your work done.”

First Peoples’ House

Law student Joey Flowers (Photo: Will Lew)

Peel Street provides plenty of food options, everything from high-end Portuguese cuisine to sushi to pub fare. But there is only one place on the street that serves soup and bannock every Wednesday and Thursday for lunch—the cozy brownstone that lodges McGill’s First Peoples’ House. The bannock must be good. Law student Joey Flowers, BA’08, lunches there frequently and, as a trained chef, chances are he is a choosy eater. But the bannock, a tasty frybread that’s popular in aboriginal communities, isn’t the only draw. “I like First Peoples’ House because of the sense of community I feel there,” says Flowers, who will soon become the first Inuk from Nunavik to earn a law degree. First Peoples’ House focuses on making the transition to university life less stressful for aboriginal students—by pairing first-year students with more experienced aboriginal peers, for instance. “It provides a network of support and friendship which connects indigenous students from all levels and study areas,” says Flowers.

Downtown lower campus

Chancellor H. Arnold Steinberg (Photo: Will Lew)

“Having started at McGill 62 years ago, and having been in and around McGill in various degrees of frequency since, clearly my favourite places have changed over the years,” says Chancellor H. Arnold Steinberg, BCom’54, LLD’00. “For example, the Redpath Museum, where I attended lectures in my early years was, I thought, one of the least attractive places at the University. With the total re-make in recent years, it has become one of my favourites. It is extraordinarily interesting as well as being beautiful and tranquil. On warm days I love watching people lying and playing on the lower campus – students and children. We Montrealers are truly fortunate to have such a glorious space in the heart of downtown.”

Anthology of war, love and nature poetry called ‘self-justifying propaganda’ but publishers say it reveals universal experiences.

More here

Hi friends!

In 2007 the McGill Reporter interviewed Drs. Ragep and Wisnovsky about their Rational Sciences in Islam Project (RASI). The interview provides a general overview of RASI and is well worth a read!

McGill Reporter

RASI

Half-ad, half-performance, this was one of the examples of art as political statement selected by Professor Charles Tripp, a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, who spoke at the University of East London on Tuesday night. He argued that graffiti, murals, posters and other visual art forms helped to “break the spell” of dictators like Ben Ali, continuing to mobilise protesters against threats to the revolutionary ideals.

For instance in January this year, as tensions between Egypt’s interim military leadership and the crowds in Tahrir Square grew, the prominent street artist Ganzeer declared: “Art is the only weapon we have left to deal with the military dictatorship”. When the authorities put up barricades around Tahrir, they were soon transformed by the city’s artists. The use of visual tricks further undermined the installation of the barricades – many of these paintings simply depicted the forbidden street that lay behind.

Such innovation may be a reaction to the Egyptian leadership’s action, but Prof Tripp said 2011 was not, as often thought, “year zero for Arab creativity”. Rather, he argued, the Arab spring represented a more focused concentration of well-established dissident art, pointing to the defacement of a picture of Saddam Hussein by defeated Iraqi soldiers in 1991 as a powerful smashing of the symbolic power of the dictator’s face. Works like Democracy is Coming! by Huda Lutfi and Mohammed Abla’s No More Killing, a visceral depiction of the “violence of the everyday state”.

Perhaps the most powerful form of art in the Middle East is graffiti. For Prof Tripp, its potency lies in its “reclamation of public space” and he argued that as well as creating a sense of solidarity, graffiti can powerfully represent the public’s hold over territories: “The infrastructure is not enormous – as long as the spray can holds out”. While the Israeli West Bank wall has long been a target for street artists, the open space of Tahrir Square has demanded further inventiveness. Children became billboards for scrawled messages, as did carefully arranged plastic cups. According to Tripp, this effected a psychological change – the square became a place of “everyday public, rather than an everyday police state”.

Many locals feel, understandably, that walls and pavements are not a suitable place to commemorate the personal tragedies that come with revolutionary events. One of the images Tripp showed was of the graffiti commemorating martyrs of the Port Said football riots in February, where at least 74 people were killed. An audience member who had lived on the same street noted that some neighbours did not understand why victims of a serious tragedy were to be commemorated on something as undignified as a public toilet.

What Tripp’s talk underlined was that this art is a reaction against oppression, and a danger for any observer, particularly in the west, would be to separate the art from its context. There is a risk of imposing a western interpretation, or embracing only the most “western-friendly” face of Middle Eastern Art that western commentators like ourselves have to guard against. Near the end of his talk, Tripp related a story of Banksy painting on the controversial West Bank wall. An elderly Palestinian told him it looked beautiful, before adding: “We don’t want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.”

Hi friends!
In 2008 an interview by the McGill News was conducted with some of our esteemed colleagues and researchers. The article highlights some challenges and opportunities for researchers in the fields of Islamic Studies. It also provides a nice overview of the history of the IIS & ISL, which are now celebrating our 60th anniversary!
Read on: McGill News Understanding Islam

02 Jun 2011 / 14:55

While cafés in Pristina are full of young people, the capital’s libraries and bookstores are almost always empty. No official statistics exist on how much people read in Kosovo, but most agree that reading is on the decline. Booksellers complain that they are not selling books while librarians say their only visitors are students seeking course material.

Some blame poor economic conditions, the rise of the Internet, government policies, or the destruction of libraries and bookstores during the independence war of the late 1990s.

But a law adopted last July, exempting book sales from value added tax, VAT, hasn’t made a difference, booksellers say.

“There’s been no difference in sales compared to last year, when books were a little more expensive because of tax,” Nuhredin Bashota, owner of the Albini bookstore in Pristina, says. “The level of interest among people in buying books is extremely small.”

Weak sales at May’s International Book Fair in Pristina served to confirm fears of a declining interest in books. Behxhet Bici, president of the Union of Publishers in Kosovo, which organized the fair, blames the Internet.

“Today almost everything can be found on the net, and as a result of the economic crisis, readers choose the net and don’t buy books,” Bici says.

“Books in Kosovo have many problems that no one is trying to solve,” Nazim Rrahmani, a prominent Kosovo writer, says.

Kosovo’s appetite for literature hasn’t recovered from the destruction of libraries and bookstores carried out by Serbian forces during the war, Rrahmani feels, while Kosovo’s own institutions hadn’t done anything to revive interest in books, either.

Kosovo National Library demolished parts

Ramadan Beshiri, of the promotions department in the culture ministry, disagrees. The ministry has promoted books through various publications and helped libraries buy books – all to no avail, he says.

Too few books?

Sali Bashota, director of the National Library of Kosovo, says part of the trouble is that too few books are published in Kosovo these days. Thousands were once published each year, but that number has dwindled to just several hundred.

Bashota says poor distribution means that the books in print don’t reach all their potential readers. “Not enough is being done to provide readers with books,” Bashota says.

Abdullah Zeneli, who owns the Buzuki publishing house in Pristina, sees the problem differently. He laments the unavailability of new books. “Libraries don’t have the new books that readers require, and the readers cannot get them in bookstores, either, so the problem is in the supply,” Zeneli says.

To that, Bashota responds that library budgets don’t stretch to new titles. Many people who frequent libraries and bookstores are students – with correspondingly thin wallets. When they come to the Fjola bookstore, for example, they aren’t usually there to shop for high-end literature.

“We have many requests – but they are for photocopies or for educational literature,” Edona Peci says. “We also sell books, but not many.”

A hard sell in the rain:

Librarians and booksellers aren’t the only ones worried by the downturn. In the shadow of Pristina’s most recognizable landmark, the Grand Hotel, vendors peddle books from outdoor tables. They, too, are suffering from what they feel is official disinterest in their trade, which is highly dependent on the weather.

The city government promised to build them a specialized facility fours year ago. It has yet to materialize. “I do not understand this. We do not need to stand here in the rain and snow,” bookseller Hajredin Bajra said.

Muhamet Gashi, a spokesperson for the municipality of Pristina, had no explanation for the delay but said the city hadn’t forgotten the vendors’ plight. “I understand them, and we will soon resolve the problem,” Gashi said.

Kosovo’s six bestselling books in 2010-2011

Dispute and Accident, by Ismail Kadare  Who manipulates Europe? by Ulick Varange  Men who Hate Women, by Stieg Larsson  The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne and  The backstage crisis that ravaged the state, year 97, by Mero Baze.
Wartime destruction   According to the National Library of Kosovo, Serbian forces destroyed 65 public libraries housing 968,233 copies in the war of the late 1990s. They also burned 14 special libraries with 145,105 copies, 86 school libraries housing 325,415 copies and 10 high school libraries with 226,743 copies. Serbian military and paramilitary forces burned a total of 175 libraries containing 1,665,496 copies.