Faculty of Arts Alumni Newsletter www.arts.uwaterloo.ca

FALL 2001

by Christine Woods

UW’s Drama productions are an integral partof the university and the wider community.The productions present diversity andchallenges, and contribute to the artistic lifeof the student body as a whole, not just tostudents in the Faculty of Arts.

“The activity brings the university and allits component parts together in a liveinteraction of ideas,” says Joel Greenberg, adrama professor, who directed The Merchant

of Venice last fall. “The social nature of thiscoming together reminds us that thecommunity’s diversity often keeps us apart,dedicated to our separate tasks and disciplines.Whether the play in question is comic,creating the sound of shared laughter,serious and/or provocative, stimulatingdiscussion and debate, the experience is live,immediate, and reinforces the need we haveto communicate one to the other,” he explains.

Greenberg says that “students must learnto pronounce their own beliefs and values ina public arena. Without a public declarationabout basic values and an articulatedposition on political and social morality, thevalue of education is diminished.”

Students from all faculties and departmentsare welcome to join each drama production.Faculty of Arts drama students act alongsidestudents from Applied Health Sciences,Environmental Studies, Engineering, Math,and Science.

Emily Boutet (BA ’01, Honours Drama), whoplayed Portia, the rich heiress of Belmont, inThe Merchant of Venice, believes that theseproductions “open up a world of diversity.”She acknowledges UW’s reputation forhaving outstanding Engineering, Math, andComputer programs, but stresses that UWalso has a strong artistic side. “Our productionssatisfy not only the artistic interests of theArts students, but also the artistic interestsof students from all faculties.”

Through these productions, the strengthof the Drama department staff isdemonstrated. The student actors recognizethe staff’s dedication and commitment tothe department and the students. Thatcommitment is “reflected in these productionsand the magnificent result that audiencescome to enjoy every term,” says Boutet.

Trevor Martin (BA ’01, Honours Drama),who played Bassanio, Portia’s suitor, believesthat the challenge for the Drama department“is to remain inclusive and accepting of theinvolvement of others in theatre.” Whileworking with a group of engineering students,he found their interest and commitment totheatre inspiring. For those students notstudying the humanities and socialsciences, “theatre offers the opportunityto involve themselves in the study ofhuman interaction,” says Martin.

Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of

Venice as a romantic comedy, but in

“There is no arena more public than thelive theatre, andthere is noexperience moreprovocative forenliveningpersonal and open debate.” Joel Greenberg

The most extensive study everundertaken of women’s elite team sports has been conducted by Nancy Theberge. see story page 14

U N I V E R S I T Y O F WAT E R LO O D R A M A P R E S E N T S …

The Merchant of

Venice

Pictured above: (from left) Joel Greenberg (Shylock) and drama students Chris Goddard (Salerio), Brad Goddard (Gratiano), Jay D’Aoust (Solanio), and Trevor Martin (Bassanio).

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DIVERSITY, CHALLENGES, AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

From the Dean 2

Cover Story continued 3

2001 Alumni Achievement Award 4

Arts $ at Work 6

Spring Convocation Highlights 8

Departmental News 9

Class Notes 16

Alumni Life Story 20

inside...

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from the deanAMBITION AND ACHIEVEMENT

Did you know thatArts at Waterloohas the world’s

largest co-op Artsprogram? ... the most

successful too, by a widemargin, if

employment is themeasure. And if

you stick to financialmeasures, allArts

programs atWaterloo have

graduateswithaveragesalarieswell abovethe

average for comparable graduates from otheruniversities in Ontario. But the real measure of anArts graduate is in personal development, in theability to analyse, assess, and communicate.

It is no accident that skills to assess and toexpress are exactly what is needed for leadership.This has been recognized by current leaders, inboth public and private sectors, when surveyed byMaclean’s magazine. Maclean’s has consistentlyrated the University of Waterloo as #1 in Canada ingraduating “leaders of tomorrow.” (One interestingclassmate/graduate right now is Jonathan Goad.This year he is in his third season at Stratfordwhere his portrayal of Hotspur in the current pro-duction of Henry IV is drawing excellent reviews.)

In a competitive world, we think of theUniversity as a talent trust, a “national treasure,” producing talent to ensure Canada’s future.

UW graduates are also rated #1 by Maclean’s as“most innovative” nine years in a row. We have tokeep advancing to maintain that title. Recently, forexample, our Arts program in international tradewon a national award for curriculum innovation.Expect other major announcements in the future.

It is reassuring to receive “best in Canada”awards. However, here is a small secret: it is notenough to be best in Canada. In today’s reality weintend to be best in the world in our specialties,and we don’t just mean co-op. However, it is not abad launching pad to be the Arts Faculty with thelargest Arts co-op program in the world. As a UWArts graduate, you are an important contributor tofulfilling our immodest ambition.

New AppointmentsThe Arts Alumni Office welcomes new Arts faculty members and congratulates

those entering new positions within the Faculty.

RECENT FACULTY APPOINTMENTS INCLUDE:Jim Barnett, Continuing Lecturer, Accountancy Darren Charters, Lecturer, Accountancy Julie Robson, Lecturer, Accountancy Robert Weir, Assistant Professor, Classical StudiesKenneth Graham, Associate Professor, EnglishMichael MacDonald, Assistant Professor, EnglishSarah Tolmie, Assistant Professor, EnglishDouglas Kirton, Assistant Professor, Fine Arts Robert Linsley, Assistant Professor, Fine ArtsTara Collington, Assistant Professor, French Studies Mathias Schule, Assistant Professor, Germanic and Slavic Studies James Diamond, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies Regina Vera-Quinn, Professor, Spanish & Latin American Studies

RECENT ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS INCLUDE:Sheila Ager, Associate Dean of Arts, Undergraduate AffairsAnne Zeller, Chair, AnthropologyRiemer Faber, Chair, Classical StudiesKen Stollery, Associate Chair, Graduate Affairs, EconomicsKevin McGuirk, Associate Chair and Undergraduate Advisor, EnglishLinda Warley, Associate Chair and Graduate Advisor, EnglishHannah Fournier, Chair, French StudiesJohn English, Director, Tri-University Graduate Program, HistoryGeoffrey Hayes, Associate Chair, Undergraduate Affairs, History (January 2002)Kenneth McLaughlin, Associate Chair, Graduate Studies, HistoryLynne Taylor, Associate Chair, Undergraduate Affairs, HistoryPeter Carrington, Sociology, Acting Director, Legal Studies OptionMaría del Carmen Sillato, Director, Translation Academic Plan, Spanish & Latin American StudiesMariela A. Gutiérrez, Chair (re-elected for a second term), Spanish & Latin American Studies

Arts Award For Being

“On Watch”The Faculty of Arts ran a contest seeking advice on “how Arts can do even better for students.” On June 13th,Jody Michalofsky, a recent Psychologygraduate, was presented with a UW watch for her suggestions onimproving the website. As a result of one of Jody’s suggestions, an upcomingevents menu is being developed.

Thanks, Jody, and congratulations!

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Dean faces down demon in Bali!

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modern times that has been overshadowed by thecomplex issues within the story, and the anti-Semitictreatment of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. Why then did Greenberg direct a play that is so controversial?

“The Merchant of Venice was in my head for about six years because of its unsolvable nature. The play’stroubling nature demands that we assess our own values against the world on the stage. The play definesthe soul of theatre as a forum for communal reflection,self-assessment, and verbal response.” Greenbergsuggests that The Merchant of Venice “challenges eachof us to regard the play as a sounding board for our ownpersonal morality.”

Greenberg faced yet another challenge in directingThe Merchant of Venice. Two weeks before the playpremiered, he was cast as Shylock, when the originalcast member had to withdraw due to a family death. Heacknowledged that it was a difficult move, but everyoneinvolved pulled together.

The Merchant of Venice had twenty-one cast membersand played to five hundred people per showing. Thepublic response to the production was overwhelming.Greenberg reported that he received more email, notes,and office visits than for any of the other plays withwhich he’s been associated at UW since arriving here inthe fall of 1988. “The commentary was exciting, pertinentto the play, and always a reminder of the power of thispiece of theatre.”

For a theatre production to be successful, the set and costumesare as important as the actors themselves. Last fall’s production ofThe Merchant of Venice was set in the 1950s, rather than in theperiod in which the play was written – the late 1500s. Bill Chesney,director of design in the Drama department, believes that “anytransplanting of Shakespeare to a different time and place hasadvantages and pitfalls.” The advantage he says, “lies in the way theplays are written: for a bare stage, few props, all the necessary timeand place references are contained in the text. It permits theaudience’s imagination to fill out the visual story.”

The Merchant of Venice was last staged at UW in 1985, under the direction of William Chadwick, former Drama departmentchair, who has since retired. Chadwick returned to UW as a guestartist to play the role of Antonio, “a merchant of Venice” andShylock’s antagonist.

This past November, the Drama department launched pre-performance seminars directed at high school audiences. Theseminars, which preceded The Merchant of Venice matinees, weredivided into two parts: short talks by faculty members from Jewish Studies, English, German, and Drama, followed by aquestion-answer period. Between 300-450 teachers and studentsattended each of the three sessions.

Erin Brandenburg (4th year Honours Drama/Applied Studiesstudent), who played Nerissa, Portia’s waiting-woman, said that “The discussion sessions before the matinee performances helpedto clarify some of the themes and issues in the play so that studentswere aware of the content of the play.”

Since the pre-performance seminars were such a success, theDrama department will be including them in their production ofTwelfth Night this fall.

For details on the upcoming Drama productions, see page four. For more information about the pre-performance high school seminars, please contact the Drama department at 519-888-4567, ext. 5808.

continued from front cover

Shylock and Antonio discuss the terms of the loan that Antonio is extracting from Shylock to aid Bassanio (centre).

Erin Brandenburg (Nerissa) and Emily Boutet (Portia).SC

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2001 Alumni Achievement AwardTwo time Governor General’sprize winner for English fiction was a Fine Arts studentat Waterloo

T im Wynne-Jones, an award-winning novelist, lyricist,playwright, critic, and

children’s writer, is the fourthrecipient of the Faculty of ArtsAlumni Achievement Award. The award recognizes Waterloo Arts alumni who have madeoutstanding contributions to their professional field and/or in community and public service.

Wynne-Jones graduated fromUW in 1974 with a BA in Fine Artsand taught visual arts from 1974-78. He later earned his MA in Visual Artsat York University.

“In one of the curious twists in the creative process, Tim Wynne-Jonescame to his distinguished career as a writer through his work in FineArts,” say UW’s Ann Roberts (Fine Arts) and Ted McGee (English). In aninterview published in Canadian Materials, Wynne-Jones describes howhe began writing: “when I was drawing and started writing in the margins,I was already thinking in terms of the story behind the picture.”

As a writer, Wynne-Jones is one of the most versatile and accomplishedwith an impressive list of achievements. To date, he has written twenty-four books, three of which are adult novels. He won the $50,000 Seal FirstNovel Award for Odd’s End in 1979. Odd’s End was published in the UnitedStates, Great Britain, and Germany. It has also been released in Franceand England as a made-for-tv-movie entitled “The House That MaryBought.” His work is regularly translated into Japanese, French, Dutch,Danish, German, and Italian.

Wynne-Jones is most famous for his writing for children. He has writtensongs for television’s Fraggle Rock, theme song lyrics for YTV shows,poetry, parodies, short stories, picture books, and novels for adolescents.He has written the libretto and book for an opera, the book and lyrics for achildren’s musical, and over a dozen radio plays for the CBC, one of which,St. Anthony’s Man, won the 1988 ACTRA National Radio Award. Two of hisbooks have won the Governor General’s prize for children’s fiction: in1993, the collection of short stories, Some of the Kinder Planets, and in1995, the novel, The Maestro. He has won a dozen other awards includingthe prestigious Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Some of the Kinder

Planets, the first Canadian to do so.Since 1982, Wynne-Jones has, on occasion, taught writing at colleges

and universities across Canada. He has made many contributions to thewriting community, having served as a children’s book columnist with theToronto Globe & Mail, writer-in-residence at Nepean Public Library inPerth, and children’s book editor with the Red Deer College Press. Since1997, he has been the core-speaker at the Children’s Literature NewEngland annual institute.

Wynne-Jones is married to writer and artist, Amanda Lewis, and theylive near Perth, Ontario, with their three children. He will appear inWaterloo at the fall 2001 convocation to receive the award.

UW DRAMA 2001-2002

TWELFTH NIGHTBy William Shakespeare

Directed by Joel GreenbergNovember 14-17, 2001

Theatre of the ArtsSchool matinees:

November 14-16, 12:30 pm

ABSURD PERSON PLURAL: AN EVENING OF THREE

ABSURDIST ONE-ACT PLAYSFebruary 6-9, 13-16, 2002

Studio 180, Hagey Hall

THE CRUCIBLEBy Arthur Miller

March 20-23, 2002Theatre of the Arts

For more information, visitwww.uwaterloo.ca/DRAMA/drama.html

BOX OFFICE: 519-888-4908

T I C K E T P R I C E S$12 general public

$10 students/seniorsTime: 8 pm

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Hire a Co-op Student

Waterloo’s Co-operative Education Program isconstantly on the lookout for new employmentopportunities for Arts students, and new employers

are needed each term. If you know an employer who mighthire an Arts student for four months or longer, please contactus right away. Currently, some 1,000 Arts students benefitfrom the co-op experience at Waterloo, making it the largestprogram of its kind in Canada. Co-op is vital to the Faculty ofArts because it helps attract high-calibre students, it introducesprofessional issues to the classroom, and it maintains a nichefor the university within the post-secondary education system.

If you or someone you know can give Arts students achance to put their education to work, please contact:

Michael HuntDepartment of Co-operative Education and Career ServicesUniversity of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1519-888-4026Fax: 519-746-6019email: mchunt@uwaterloo.ca

We want your NominationsArts & Letters is seeking nominations for the2002 AlumniAchievement Award. This award recognizes Waterloo Arts Alumni who have made outstandingcontributions to their professional field and/or incommunity and public service. For more information,contact Christine Woods at 519-888-4567, ext. 2119, or cwoods@watarts.uwaterloo.ca . The nomination deadline is April 30, 2002.

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Jennifer Chu, an Applied Studies Co-op/Psychology student, wasnamed one of the two top co-op students at UW for the year 2000.Presenting her with the award certificate is Bruce Lumsden, director of Co-operative Education & Career Services.

Doctoral FellowshipsCatherine Scott and Isabel Pederson (English), Kirrily Freeman (History),and Tim Gawley (Sociology) were all awarded Social Sciences andHumanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral fellowships.

Oleg Minin (MA ’95 Russian) has received a three-year Merit Fellowship for a doctoral program at the University of Southern Californiain Los Angeles.

North American Awards for Graduate StudentsEtsuko Hoshino-Browne (Psychology) was presented with the American

Psychological Society Student Caucus RiSE-UP Award (along withcolleague Adam Zanna) in February of 2001. Part of this honour includedan invited presentation of a research paper at the annual meeting in June of 2001.

The prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Fund provided a generous awardto Steve Smith (Psychology) in support of his research and training atKing’s College London (UK) for a period of two months during the spring2001 academic term.

UW Conference AwardAt the conclusion of the first UW Graduate Student Research Conference,an oral presentation award was given to Psychology PhD candidate, JulieSmith, for her presentation on “Innovation, Society, and Culture.”

Uniform Final Examinations (UFEs)UW graduates took top places in the fall 2000 round of the accountingprofession’s UFEs. Heading the Ontario Honour Roll was Ashish Kapoor(MAcc ’00), who received a Gold Medal from the Institute of CharteredAccountants of Ontario (ICAO). He also tied for third place on the HonourRoll of the national body, the Canadian Institute of CharteredAccountants (CICA). Jocelyn Blanchet (MAcc ’00) garnered the ICAOSilver Medal and came eighth on the CICA honours list.

Altogether, eight UW graduates finished in the provincial top 20. Severalreturned to campus in spring 2001 to offer advice to this year’s writers.

Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS)Several graduate and undergraduate students in the departments ofEnglish, Germanic and Slavic, and Sociology, received OGS scholarships.

Natural Sciences and Engineering ResearchCouncil (NSERC) Undergraduate Research AwardsEight Psychology students were awarded NSERC scholarships for thespring 2001 term. In addition to the financial award, each student wasgiven a research position within one of the experimental labs; studentsworked as members of lab teams and for many students this was theirfirst opportunity to directly impact the design and implementation of aformal research experiment.

student awards

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SCHOLARSHIPS2001 marked a year where Arts faculty demonstrated their belief in the students andtheir studies in Arts by establishing scholarships. Endowments have been created whichwill ultimately provide scholarships to deserving students in these areas:

FacultyHerbert and Raymonde Dubé Memorial ScholarshipThis scholarship was established by Dr. Pierre Dubé, a long-standing professor inthe Department of French Studies, in memory of his parents. It is awarded to afourth-year student registered in the French Teaching Specialization.

Mary Gerhardstein EntranceScholarshipAwarded to a first-year Arts student, this scholarship wasestablished in honour ofEnglish professor, MaryGerhardstein, who retired from UW after 37 years with the Faculty of Arts.

Mary Gerhardstein, who served as theAssociate Dean of Arts, UndergraduateAffairs, for the past five and a half years, poses with Ramona Ionescu (2B Applied Studies/German student)at a recent retirement reception.

AlumniKaren Wilkinson (MAcc ’90) has given UW a gift of a$100,000 life insurance policy. Her generous donation will go to Accounting undergraduate scholarships.Wilkinson is a senior tax manager with Deloitte & Touchein Kitchener.

FORGING NEW PATHS...Kerr Ostrander Leadership for Tomorrow Awards

Each year, several Kerr OstranderLeadership for Tomorrow Awards, valued at $2,500, are presented to upper-

year Arts students who “have contributed tothe public good by challenging conventionalwisdom and taking the path less travelled” in their studies, extracurricular activities,and/or community involvement. Theseawards were established in 1999 by RobertKerr, and co-named in honour of his friendand business associate, Eric Ostrander.

“In establishing bursaries for the arts

and humanities, I had two objectives. The

first was to support and encourage those

students who could make a contribution to

the social and cultural fabric of Canada.

The second was to provide the assistance

now when the need is greatest due to the

current public funding policies.” (Robert

Kerr, awards sponsor )

Romani Curtis and Darren Conrad Brunkare just two recipients of the Kerr OstranderLeadership for Tomorrow Awards. These students just can’t wait to make a differencein the world. As well as working hard to excel in their academic programs, theseindividuals are very active in volunteer andcommunity activities – and they have a clearview of what they want to do with their lives.

“I am a strong believer in the tremendous

potential of individuals to make a difference

in the lives of others. My long-term goal is to

work for the United Nations. I would like to

contribute my energies to such a worthwhile

cause in the hopes of solving the world’s

most critical conflicts.” (Romani Curtis)

“Common to my experiences in the

international, national, and local

communities has been an active effort to

engage individuals and to provide new

means for them to achieve their own

deserved degree of dignity and well-being.

The Kerr Ostrander Leadership for Tomorrow

Award certainly was a welcome financial

contribution to my undergraduate studies.

It also provided encouragement and

affirmation that my efforts have meaning

beyond my own sense of what is right, and

of how I feel compelled to live in the world.”

(Darren Conrad Brunk)

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arts $ at work

Charles and Ian Lithgow Entrance Scholarship in Arts. A scholarship of $1000 to an outstanding first-year Artsstudent pursuing an English degree, has been established in memory of Charlesand Ian Lithgow. Both men valued concise, clear, and direct prose.

Daniel G. WattDan Watt Scholarship. Funds were bequeathed to the University of Waterloo by Daniel G. Watt (former History alumnus), to provide two entrance scholarships for high academic achievement to two history graduate students each year. The first awards will be given in fall 2001.

Anyone wishing to contribute directly to these endowment funds, please contact

the Office of Development at 519-888-4567, ext. 2036.

In Memorian

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GRAD CLASS GIVINGArts 2001 was the first class to pledge a contribution to their alma mater as theygraduated this spring. The appeal was the idea of several ambitious Arts students, who felt that the Arts Faculty should be part of the annual grad class giving program.Mark Brissett (Political Science), John Heckbert (Philosophy), Michelle Chatten (Arts Accounting), and Adam Rodrigues (Economics), volunteered their time to makeArts Grad Giving 2001 a reality. The program was a tremendous success with gradspledging over $15,040. Thank you new alumni for your vote of support to the Facultyof Arts, University of Waterloo.

2001 ARTS ALUMNI ENTRANCE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTSThe following ten students are this year’s recipients of the Arts Alumni EntranceScholarship. The scholarship is valued at up to $3,000 with $2,000 payable in Year One and an additional $1,000 payable in Year Two providing the studentachieves an overall average of 83%. This year’s recipients had admission averagesranging from 94.5% to 92.2%.

Name High School City/Province

Lisa Bonari St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School Oakville, Ontario

Jennifer Lynn Davis New Glasgow High School New Glasgow, Nova Scotia

Jennifer Giesbrecht W.C. Miller Collegiate Altona, Manitoba

Leslie John Nelson McIntyre Collegiate Winnipeg, Manitoba

Meredith Katz London South Secondary School London, Ontario

Diana Knoll St. Christopher Secondary School Sarnia, Ontario

Barbara Reiser A.B. Lucas Secondary School London, Ontario

Suzanne Stone Port Perry High School Port Perry, Ontario

Jessica Lisa Wheeler East Humberland Secondary School Brighton, Ontario

Melinda Wilson O‘Neill Collegiate Vocational Institute Oshawa, Ontario

campus news

Faculty Retirements

UW “Best Overall” (Maclean’s 2000)Maclean’s magazine has once againanointed UW the “best overall” university inCanada, based on a “reputational” survey ofhigh school counsellors, business executives,university leaders, and others. Waterloo hasheld that slot every year since 1992.

In its annual universities issue, publishedlast fall, the magazine also announced thatthe reputational survey had placed UW firstas “most innovative” and for producing “leadersof tomorrow.” In the fourth reputationalcategory, “highest quality,” UW fell from lastyear’s third-place ranking to fourth.

UW ranks highest among comprehensiveuniversities in alumni support, with 22.1%of alumni making gifts to the institutionwithin the past five years. Two medical-doctoral institutions, Toronto and Western,and eight primarily undergraduate institutionsreported higher percentages than that.

UW scored highest among comprehensiveuniversities in the percentage of facultymembers who have PhDs (96.4%) and wasalso highest among comprehensiveuniversities in the number of students whohave won national awards (6.6 per thousand).

University of Waterloo Daily Bulletin

The Faculty of Arts presented vice-president(academic) and provost Jim Kalbfleisch withan Arts jacket at a reception held in hishonour. Kalbfleisch took early retirement asof December 31, 2000, after 37 years at Waterloo.

Provost Retired

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The Faculty of Arts wishes to express its sincerest gratitude for the many years

of contribution offered by the following recent faculty retirees:

Len Eckel (Accountancy)Phyllis Young Forsyth (Classical Studies) – In her honour, the department has renamed the senior scholarship the “Phyllis Young Forsyth Scholarship.”Mary Gerhardstein (English) Hildegard Nabbe (Germanic and Slavic)John New (History)Ann Roberts (Fine Arts)John Wilson (Political Science)

Kalbfleisch (left) gets some help from Philip Merikle,Psychology chair.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S SILVER MEDAL Lauralee Therese Haas (BA, Honours Geography) waspresented with the Governor-General’s Silver Medal at springconvocation. This medal is awarded to a student with thehighest academic standing in an undergraduate program. UW awards two medals each year: one in Engineering, Mathor Science, and one in Arts, AHS or ES.

Lauralee’s familycelebrated the proudmoment: her sister,Marianne (left) andher parents, Gloriaand Gerhard Haas.

2001 DISTINGUISHED TEACHER AWARDSThe Distinguished Teacher Awards are presented each yearat spring convocation “in recognition of a continued recordof excellence in teaching at the University of Waterloo.”

From left: Congratulating Will Forlitz (Fine Arts),Geoffrey Hayes(History), and Pierre Dubé (French Studies), on their DistinguishedTeacher Award, are (left) Chancellor M.V. O’Donovan (DistinguishedProfessor Emeritus) and (right) Robert Kerton (Dean of Arts).

ARTS ALUMNI GOLD MEDALPhilosophy’s Ayli Lapkoff was thewinner of the Arts Alumni GoldMedal for the highest academicstanding in the Faculty of Arts.

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Co-Valedictorians focus on buildingbridges and making connectionsby Emily Schaming

T he Faculty of Arts was pleased to have co-valedictorians sharing thehonour of speaking for the 2001 graduating class: Veronica Chau(Honours Economics/Applied Studies/International Trade

Specialization) and Emma Iserman (Honours Psychology/Applied Studies).The connections between people, between concepts, and between disciplines

are integral to a successful Arts education. This spring’s valedictory addressfocused on the innovations in Arts at Waterloo that allow its graduates tobuild a, “vast network of resources, people, and ideas” to use and grow fromfor the rest of their lives.

Veronica told the gathered graduates that Arts students, “are some of theforemost leaders on our campus and in our communities… juggling studieswith family obligations, employment and community involvement. We’vestarted businesses. We’ve started charities. We’ve set athletic records… Weare among the most well-rounded students at this university.”

As a former vice-president of education with the Federation of Studentsand residence don, Veronica is no stranger to the balancing act that is auniversity education. She will continue to balance volunteer work withbusiness as she starts work for a management consulting firm this fall.

Emma spoke about the connections between people that her Artseducation allowed her to create. “We must recognize those who have helpedus along the way,” she stated. “Our parents and families for their incrediblesupport, our professors and instructors for their wisdom and guidance, ourfriends and classmates, and all the other people here at Waterloo who helpto make it such a wonderful place. Today is not only a celebration of oursuccess, but yours as well.”

Emma will be building more personal and educational bridges as shepursues her studies in the Social Psychology PhD program here at theUniversity of Waterloo.

“There are many bridges yet to cross,” Emma concluded, but reassuredthe graduates that, “...Waterloo has prepared us well. The knowledge we havegained provides a foundation, and the lessons we have learned, not only inour classes but also from our friends, will endure.”

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST ALUMNI792 Arts students received degrees at Waterloo’s spring convocation.

Veronica Chau (left) and Emma Isermann during their valedictory speech at spring convocation.

spring convocation 2001

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School of AccountancySchool Charts a New CourseGales of change are sweeping through theworld of accounting, and the School ofAccountancy is charting a new course tomeet these great challenges and excitingnew developments.

The last several years have seen majorupheavals in the School’s externalenvironment, explains Howard Armitage, a longtime professor of ManagementAccounting. Accounting firms areconstantly reaching into new areas anddemanding expertise in new fields; as aresult, professional requirements foraccountants are in flux; and corporations,internet companies, and virtualuniversities are vying with traditionalproviders to deliver educational programs.“If we want to continue our leadership role,we must also evolve our business model.We have a lot at stake here,” says Armitage.

Faculty members foresee excitingopportunities in harnessing new technologiesto deliver programs, in capitalizing on themarket’s need for new specialties, and inlinking up with new partners.

Leading the School’s development ofprograms, curricula, and researchinitiatives for the future are DirectorMorley Lemon and three newly-appointedAssociate Directors – Tony Atkinson(research), Jim Barnett (Masters andprofessional development programs), andGrant Russell (undergraduate programs).

AnthropologyWaterloo Anthropologists and the CommunitySeveral projects underway in theAnthropology department spotlight links between anthropologists and thewider community.

The year 2001 is the 100th anniversaryof the birth of Margaret Mead, famous forbringing anthropology to the generalpublic. Harriet Lyons lectured on Mead’swork this winter in Ontario and BritishColumbia, discovering how interestedpeople still are in Mead’s contributions.

Tom Abler brought anthropology to aninternational audience when he was

interviewed on Australian television abouthis book on military dress.

Anne Zeller recently completed a filmcalled Chimpanzees Today, based on 10years of data-gathering about ways inwhich chimpanzees and people interact. Itshowcases knowledge gained from chimpsin the wild and also features contributionschimpanzees make as subjects of medicaland behavioural research, as entertainersand pets, and as inhabitants of zoos,offering amusement and education to areceptive public.

Maria Liston’s archaeological researchon a burial called “The Rich AthenianLady,” shed new light on burial practicesfor children in ancient Greece. She hasalso been involved in helping childrenexperience hands-on archaeology. At theHolston Presbytery Camp in NorthCarolina, Liston shares with campers theexcavation of a schoolhouse used duringthe early 1900s. Last summer, campersheard a talk by a former student at theschool, who supplied much information,though the structure was no longer visible.Liston found the location and has beendirecting campers in a dig at the site.Finds include jars used a century ago tocarry lunch to school. Liston is frequentlyasked to help police identify animal andhuman bones. She helped test equipmentto identify and study human remains inmarshy soil, and has also interpretedarchaeological displays at a youngoffenders’ facility in Kitchener.

Robert Park recently published twoshort books on Nunavut archaeology inInuktitut, making information aboutarchaeology available to Inuit people in

their own language. His work has alsobeen selected to be profiled in anupcoming textbook, the First CanadianEdition of Ember, Ember and Hoppa’sPhysical Anthropology and Archaeology.

Arts Computing OfficeNew Computer ConsultantsSean Speers joined the Arts ComputingOffice as a senior computing consultant in a joint appointment with the School ofAccountancy. Speers is a UW Mathgraduate, and will serve as web applicationsspecialist for the Faculty of Arts.

Todd Taylor was recently hired as thenew language computing consultant withthe Arts Language Laboratory. Taylorreplaced Carl Hennig who retired in April2001, after 27 years at UW.

Polaris to NexusThe Arts Computing Office is in the processof upgrading and replacing studentcomputing lab workstations across theFaculty of Arts, as part of the evolutionfrom Polaris (the campus-wide PC networkrunning Windows 95) to Nexus (based onthe Windows 2000 operating system). Byfall 2001, four of six Arts public labs willbe converted from Polaris to Nexus

(covering 80 computer workstations). The remaining two Arts studentcomputing labs will be converted duringthe spring 2002 term, and are to be up andrunning by fall 2002. New software andcomputing applications are being

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Anthropology has once again become anindependent department. Anne Zeller is the chair,the post she held before the merger with ClassicalStudies in 1996.

Goodbye, Carl!

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developed to run on the Windows 2000

system, while less and less new softwarebeing designed will be compatible withearlier versions of the operating system.The evolution from Polaris to Nexus

will help us to provide students withaccess to the latest in PC-based softwareand applications.

Classical StudiesResearch in Greek and Roman CivilizationClassical Studies is a discipline thatfocuses on the ancient worlds of Greeceand Rome. Much evidence has survivedfrom antiquity, but not all of it has beenanalyzed or interpreted. Two projects inour department plan to make a contributionof this sort.

George Robertson is examining thefamous Greek philosopher Plato’s use ofthe poetry of Pindar. Though Plato presentspoetry as a dangerous thing, speaking tothe emotions rather than the intellect andthus obstructing the quest for virtue throughknowledge, which is at the core of hisphilosophy, his work abounds with referencesto and quotations from works of poetry.Poems may be recited and discussed indetail, or the quotation may be only a fewwords, with no explicit ‘marking’ of thesewords as verse. One such quotation, yetunnoticed, appears in Plato’s Gorgias,where Sokrates attempts to show that apompous orator’s rhetorical ability is akind of confidence trick rather than a trueskill. Such a reading of the passage wouldbe in agreement with a number of otherstudies of the deployment of poetic quotationsin Plato and their effects on the literaryatmosphere of the dialogues.

On the Roman side, Len Curchin isexamining the culture of the Iron Ageinhabitants of the Meseta, the centralplateau of Spain, and how their lives weretransformed after the Roman conquest inthe second century B.C. This study, whichwill lead to a book entitled The

Romanization of Central Spain: Cultural

Change in a Celtic Hinterland, argues thatthe assimilation of these peoples was not(as is often thought) imposed by Romanpolicy, but was an indigenous response tothe social and material benefits of Roman

civilization. Contextual and artifactualevidence from hundreds of settlementsites and cemeteries is examined, as wellas Celtiberian and Latin inscriptions andcoins from the region.

Drama and SpeechCommunicationDepartment InitiativesLast November was a busy month in theDrama and Speech Communicationdepartment. After months of planning, two highly successful initiatives werelaunched. The first featured pre-performance seminars for high schoolstudents on The Merchant of Venice

(see Arts & Letters cover story).The second was the inaugural Silversides

Theatre Artists Series. Recently, Mrs. BessieSilversides gifted the department with alarge collection of her late son’s theatrebooks and materials, available in thedepartment to anyone on campus. As well,Mrs. Silversides gave $10,000 to set up anendowment, which the department used tolaunch the annual Silversides Theatre ArtistsSeries. The first theatre artist, MichaelHealey, Canadian actor and award-winningwriter of the highly successful play, The

Drawer Boy, was interviewed by thedepartment’s new faculty member, GerhardHauck. Held in the UW Bookstore over thelunch hour, with live music andrefreshments, this event was open to theuniversity community.

Three new courses in SpeechCommunication were added this year(Conflict Management, the OrganizationalConsultant, and Leadership) and are taughtby new faculty member, Diana Denton. Inparticular, the Leadership course challengedstudents to apply their communicationskills in a leadership initiative to promoteDrama’s unique program across the campus,to industry, to high school students, and tograduate programs. A lot of work and creativitycontributed to this highly successfulcourse, which will now be offered annuallyin the fall term.

Joint VentureDiana Denton (Drama and SpeechCommunication) and Andrew McMurry(English) have been successful in their jointapplication to the federal and provincialgovernments under the “New Opportunities”grant for new faculty. They have beenawarded $217,000 in computer and digitalequipment support to conduct research intohuman-computer interaction.

EconomicsStudent EntrepreneursThe entrepreneurship course (Economics220), pioneered by Larry Smith and nowcarried on by Geoff Malleck, teaches studentsthe role of entrepreneurship in theeconomy, especially competition,innovation, and investment. Students alsostudy historical experience, theoreticalframework, market dynamics, public policy,and practical applications in this course.

The course has been so popular thatstudents and alumni have opened successfulbusinesses. For example, Jin-Hee Songopened her business, Sweet DreamsTeashop, in the University Plaza a littleover a year ago. The bubble tea wasdeveloped in Taiwan and is a favouritedrink here in Waterloo.

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Jin-Hee Song received a Canadian College andUniversity Entrepreneur award for her SweetDreams Teashop, in a competition offered by the St. Louis University Entrepreneurship Centre.

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The company Kickstarts was started byalumni Greg Stewart, Anil Sabharwal,Marc Rigaux, and Mike Zavershnik “toconnect outside investors to theentrepreneurial undercurrent running throughUW and its students” (Imprint, November2000). Kickstarts recently held an onlineventure competition to identify promisingentrepreneurs and high-tech business concepts.This competition was won by a UW student.

Nigel Barham was interviewed by CBSabout his work term project, which involvedsetting up a website, www.survivorfire.com,on the Survivor II TV series. He has madethis a permanent business and with thehelp of some friends has promotions, contests,and information on the website. Check it out!

EnglishMilton InteractiveThe English department is always especiallyexcited by innovations which bridge betweenthe Literature and Rhetoric programs.Next year, Kathryn Acheson (residentMiltonist) and Andrew McMurry (an experton new media) will team teach a new graduatecourse called Milton Interactive. In thecourse, students will learn the practicalskills to make CD-ROM or web basedsupplements for the teaching of the greatepic poem, “Paradise Lost.” They will alsowork their way through theoretical issues,such as how electronic media differ fromprint media in how they are used, how theypresent information, and how they can beused effectively in the classroom. The coursewill give the graduate students new skillsand ideas which will open up excitingpossibilities for their research and teaching,and for work in electronic publishing andinformation design.

Acheson and McMurry will also gainexpertise and knowledge which will enrichtheir other teaching, and is sure to stimulateideas for further research into the marvellouspotential of the intersection betweenliterature, history, culture, and new media.The course will also bridge the past andthe future, literary history and informationtechnology, and we hope it will be a modelfor other endeavours at the graduate andundergraduate level that will bringtogether the traditional strengths of auniversity with future possibilities.

Fine ArtsMiniature Art ExhibitionThe Fine Arts department is currentlyplanning its fifth annual MiniatureExhibition and Sale, which is scheduled toopen this year on Friday, November 30th.This show of 5" x 4" miniature works of artby well-known, unknown, and soon-to-befamous artists attracts hundreds of peopleeach year. They are drawn to East CampusHall by the vast selection of matted drawings,paintings, photographs, and prints,reasonably priced in the $10 to $100 range(averaging $20-$25), which the departmenthas been careful to schedule in the veryheart of the Christmas shopping season.

Thanks to the contributions of manyartists and to the crowds of collectors, lastyear’s show was a huge success – 1200miniatures were exhibited and Fine Artsraised $11,600 to provide much-neededfunding for the department’s many activities. They’re thinking big for this year’sminiature sale – hoping to break last year’srecord and adding a fun finale, with asurprise emcee, to their silent auction onthe Saturday evening.

This year, the exhibition and sale will beheld in the University of Waterloo ArtGallery, located in East Campus Hall, ratherthan in the smaller galleries near thedepartment’s entrance. In the past, and lastyear in particular, the rush on opening daywas overwhelming. Fine Arts hopes thisnew and larger venue will help create a morerelaxed atmosphere. They invite everyone toattend, and also invite artists (of whateverdegree of fame) to contribute miniatureworks to the exhibition and sale. For furtherinformation, contact Lesley Hartley, whohas organized these shows since theirinception, at 519-888-4567, ext. 6923.

FrenchCultural StudiesThe French department, while still offeringits existing honours program in literatureand the French teaching option, will beadding a third new general program (or aminor) in French Cultural Studies beginningfall 2002. This program “is for the student

who is interested in France and thefrancophone world, but who would preferto approach it through art and history aswell as literature – and have the lecturesand exams in English.” Students will needto do some reading in French, since that’sthe language in which French literature iswritten, but it won’t be as extensive as forstudents in the honours literature program.Planned courses include such titles as TheAcadian World, Contemporary FrenchNewspapers, Louis XIV and the Golden Ageof the French Monarchy, Paris Through theAges, and a required second-year course,An Introduction to Theories of Culture.

UW French Contest 2001About 200 high school students from 12school districts in southwestern Ontarioparticipated in the 28th Annual FrenchContest on April 25, 2001, sponsored bythe Department of French Studies. Up tothree contestants from each of 75 to 80secondary schools are tested in listeningand reading comprehension, grammar,vocabulary, cultural studies, and oralproficiency. We are grateful to the Georgeand Helen Vari Foundation of Toronto andto corporate, institutional, and individualsponsors who provide more than $7,500 inprizes including the first prize, a two-weektrip to France donated by Red Leaf StudentPrograms/Tours Inc. This year, theChancellor of the University and theFrench Consul General joined the winnersand their teachers at the awards banqueton May 17, 2001. For information on thecontest, contact Rosemary Bauer atrbauer@uwaterloo.ca .

Germanic and Slavic StudiesRussian OnlineNathan Saliwonchyk and Jane Buckingham,Masters Russian students, represented theGermanic and Slavic department at UW’sfirst Graduate Student Research Conference

in early April. They are developing anonline version of Basic Russian for Business.Saliwonchyk emphasized the need “toresearch new ways of multimedia pedagogicalapproaches for foreign language instruction.”All four elements of a language course –

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

textbook, lectures, exercises, and testing –will be enhanced online: “Textualcommunication skills can be acquired byinteractive written exercises that provideinstant feedback and verbalcommunication skills by interactive oralexercises.” Within each lecture unit, theuser can immediately access thecorresponding references from thetextbook and interactive written and oralexercises. In written exercises, errors areinstantly displayed or corrected onrequest. Oral exercises involve the audioplayback of a displayed phrase with thecorrect pronunciation and intonation. Thedepartment will use the research of thesegraduate students to develop both Slavicand Germanic courses.

Taking Care of Business –in GermanyTwo Arts students packed their bags andspent the summer working in Germany oninternships arranged through theDepartment of Germanic and SlavicStudies, a number that is certain to growin future years. Professor MichaelBoehringer explains that “Placing ourstudents – be they in co-op or regularprograms – in internships is a naturalextension of our focus on applied languagelearning.” Over the last few years, thedepartment has created several courses in Business German at the intermediateand advanced levels to prepare studentsfor the linguistic and interculturalchallenges they will face in a German-language work environment. Boehringerstresses that “Employers seem veryinterested in workers who have already

proven themselves on internationalassignments and are comfortable intoday’s diverse work place.” Sarah Shelly, amajor in Sociology and German, put herskills to work right away as an intern withthe Polytechnical University Regensburg.

Honorary RecognitionSigfrid Hoefert has been made an honorarymember of the International GerhartHauptmann Society in Berlin for hisoutstanding research on Gerhart Hauptmann,Nobel Prize winner and central figure of theGerman naturalist movement (1880-1910).This distinction has been awarded to only ahandful of scholars internationally.

HistoryNew Unique History MA AvailableThe History department is delighted toannounce some exciting news for studentswishing to pursue graduate degrees inHistory. Waterloo’s Public History MA, thefirst of its kind in Canada, and Canada’sonly co-op MA in History, has recently beenreviewed by the Ontario Council onGraduate Studies and confirmed in goodstanding. The Public History programattracts students from every province inCanada, and one of our graduates, FredHosking, has established a prominentOttawa-based private sector companyspecializing in public history.

Tri-University Graduate ProgramIn September, in an arrangement withWilfrid Laurier and the University ofGuelph, students enrolling in our regularMA in History will join those in our PhDprogram to become part of a Tri-UniversityGraduate Program (which will be housedat Waterloo, 2001-2004). Combining ourteaching and research fields with those ofour neighbouring sister universities’ Historydepartments ensures that Waterloo’sgraduate programs in History are amongthe very best in Canada. Students willreceive a University of Waterloo degree,but they will also share in the richness of

an enhanced program and the fellowshipof a larger cohort of students with whomthey will meet in seminars and in Tri-University gatherings. These are excitingtimes to be part of the graduate programin History at UW.

The New DiplomacyJohn English (History), Director of theCentre for Foreign Policy and Federalism,and Andrew Cooper (Political Science),organized a series of conferences on “The New Diplomacy.” The final forum washeld in cooperation with the United NationsUniversity Leadership Academy in Amman,Jordan, in April 2001. An edited collectionfrom the series will be published by theUnited Nations University Press.

Mature StudentServicesMature Student Endowment FundMature Student Services is proud to announcethat the Mature Student Endowment Fund,established by their office several yearsago, has allowed them to award severalscholarships, as well as bursaries, for theacademic year 2000. The new awards arebased solely on academic merit and areavailable to mature students enrolled inany term in the past academic year.Winners are Anna Wilson (Classics),Cristina Volpini (Classics), Lorraine Hunter(Religious Studies), Patricia MartinChampion (Psychology), Trina Reis (Non-Major), Jennifer Antifave (Non-Major),Beryl Buckley-Golder (Psychology), JudithEagle (Psychology), Christopher Gordon(Classics), Marcia Daken (English),Heather Nelson (Non-Major), SusanMezzatesta (Non-Major), and Judy Thacker(Psychology) who won the Bette Lockaward. Distance Education student AnnMcLuckie was the winner of the MatureStudent Services Entrance Scholarship.

Thanks go to mature student alumni,students, staff, faculty, and friends whohave contributed so generously to the fund.

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Jane and Nathan at the UW Graduate StudentResearch Conference.

PhilosophyInternational ConferenceIn May 2001, the Department of Philosophyhosted an international conference, The

Limits of Warrant, which was funded by aSocial Sciences and Humanities ResearchCouncil (SSHRC) grant and organized byProfessor Tim Kenyon of the department.This somewhat cryptic title describes a set of topics at the intersection ofmetaphysics and epistemology. The maininternational speakers were slated to beTimothy Williamson, recently appointedWykeham Professor of Logic at the Universityof Oxford; Roy Sorenson of DartmouthCollege; and Crispin Wright of the Universityof St. Andrews.

Unfortunately, Professor Wright wasunable to attend the conference due to asprained ankle. It reflected well upon thedepth of the program that such aninfluential writer on contemporarymetaphysics could be lost without harmingthe continuity or content of the proceedings;while Wright was missed, it seemed clearthat there was enough content for everyone,and then some.

Bernard Linsky of the University ofAlberta launched the conference on Fridayevening with an overview of a collection ofrelated paradoxes of knowledge, and someconjecture on what might unify them withrespect to their logical structure.Saturday’s highlights included anintriguing and quite technical paper onthe epistemology of quantum mechanics,by Western Ontario’s William Demopoulos,and a detailed book symposium withWilliamson. On Sunday, UW’s DavidDeVidi gave a well-received paper on thesemantics of intuitionistic logic, beforeSorenson closed the proceedings with aninformal discussion of vague knowledge;the central example of his talk was thefamous “Does he shoot five, or does heshoot six?” scene from Dirty Harry.

Participants’ impressions of theconference and the university were verypositive, due in great measure to theexcellent preparation and organization bya group of Philosophy graduate students.

Political ScienceFaculty News

The PoliticalSciencedepartment isabout to lose itsmost seniormember, JohnWilson, who hasbeen in thedepartment for 37years. Wilsonhelped shape the

department and hire all the current facultymembers. Hundreds of students willremember and miss him. He was widelyknown amongst the students for hisdedication to teaching, his humour, thepolitical anecdotes injected into hisCanadian Politics 260A lectures andseminars, and for an occasional gruffexterior. He will, however, continue tooversee the Centre for Election Studiesresearch project, and will continue as anadjunct professor for the next three years,so it will still be possible to bump into himonce in a while.

Sandra Burt, with Sharon Campbell(principal investigator) and several others,was awarded a three-year research grant for$613,882 from the National Cancer Instituteof Canada for the project “Understandingthe Political Process: The Role of IssueFraming in ETS Bylaw Development.”

John McGarry and Margaret Moore havewon a Carnegie Corporation Research Grantfor their “Implications of Globalization”initiative. This three-year grant is for$265,000 and is also held with ProfessorMichael Keating of the European UniversityInstitute in Florence.

John Wilson and Bob Williams havesecured grants of $210,000 for The Centrefor Election Studies from the CanadaFoundation for Innovation (CFI), OntarioInnovation Trust (OIT), and several othersources, to develop an electronic databaseof Canadian election results (at all levels)since Confederation. This research work is ongoing.

Tanya Korovkin has received a three-yeargrant for $63,000 from the Social Sciencesand Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)for the project “Social and Political

Implications of Export Expansion in RuralEcuador: 1980-2002.”

Andrew Cooper, Ashok Kapur, JohnMcGarry, and Margaret Moore have alsoreceived SSHRC grants.

Outside the University, the Departmentof Political Science has increased its profile.The flagship journal, the Canadian Journal

of Political Science, is housed in thedepartment, and Sandra Burt, AndrewCooper, and Margaret Moore are on theeditorial team. Moore has also received theAmerican Political Science Association2000 award for the Best Article publishedin 1999 in the field of Women and Politics.

PsychologySurvey Says…In the past, Psychology informallyfollowed the careers of alumni, and abouta year ago created a survey plan to gleanspecific information and opinionsregarding undergraduate programs andsubsequent career paths. The surveyreached a sample of undergraduate alumniwho graduated during the period of 1987-1998, and the department was pleased toreceive 250 completed forms. Half of thegroup were regular honours students, 15%were in the co-op program, and a thirdgraduated from the general program. Itwas striking how many graduates (65%)pursued further degrees: one-thirdcompleted advanced degrees, 20% helddegrees in education, and 10% received acollege diploma. The survey asked aboutfirst jobs and current employment andfound great diversity! The responses weresorted into broad categories related toinitial employment, and among the mostcommon fields of employment were officeand administrative support, communityand social services, education, andmanagement. The most common current

employment positions provide a slightlydifferent picture: education was the mostcommon job, followed by community andsocial services, and management.

Alumni rated their undergraduateeducation in the areas of career and everydaylife. Some of the highest ratings were in theareas of communication and critical thinking;report writing and oral communication skillsdeveloped in research methods courses were

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DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

seen as most important in current employment.The survey results were reported toundergraduate program administrators,and all orientation and general campuspresentations include this updated adviceand information. Curriculum planning and course development will continue tobe guided by this and other forms ofalumni input.

The department sends sincere thanks to this group of alumni! They welcomecomments or suggestions at any time — inaddition to the formal survey that mayarrive in your home mailbox.

Religious StudiesIndia 2000, A Study Term AbroadIn the fall term 2000, fifteen students fromthe University of Waterloo were in India ona study term abroad. The course was entitledThe Living Religious Traditions of India(Religious Studies 450A).

Over three months, they travelled innorth and south India encountering a widevariety of traditions: different Hindu, Muslim,Sikh, Tibetan Buddhist, Jain, and Christiancommunities. In the north, the group visitedDharamsala (Tibetan Buddhist), Amritsar(Sikhs and the Golden Temple), Rishikeshand Vrindaban (Hindu and Krishna Ashrams),

and Agra (Taj Mahal). In the south, theyvisited Bangalore (Lingayat), Bylakuppe(Buddhist), Kerala (Mahatma GandhiUniversity), Shravanabelagola (Jain), andMadurai (a Temple City). The group wasled by Professor M. Darrol Bryant ofReligious Studies at Renison College. It was his tenth trip to India.

In India, the group stayed at Muslim,Sikh, Hindu, and Christian universities.One of the most memorable was Lady DoakCollege in Madurai in south India with anall-women student body and faculty. Theyalso stayed in Hindu and Lingayatashrams, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries,and ordinary hotels. In the Tibetansettlement near Mysore, they visited theSera monastery where they joined 4,000monks for morning prayer and meditation.

They were able to hear TibetanLamas including His Holinessthe Dalai Lama, Hindu Gurus inVrindaban, Lingayat

Shivacharayas in Sirigere, Muslimintellectuals, and Christian sannyasin,

as well as scholars from the differentreligious communities of India. The groupwas welcomed everywhere. Several of thestudents found it “life transforming” andwere “amazed by the generosity andhospitality of people across India.” Bryantsaid that the “group of students wasoutstanding” and that the trip was “aremarkable educational experience.”

SociologyHigher GoalsThe most extensive study ever undertakenof women’s elite team sports has beenconducted by Nancy Theberge. Thebergespecializes in the sociology of sport andgender issues, and is cross-appointed inSociology and Kinesiology. Her research,begun in 1992, is detailed in a new book,Higher Goals: Women’s Ice Hockey and the

Politics of Gender (State University of NewYork Press, 2000).

The work is based on field researchconducted over two years of an eliteCanadian major women’s hockey team,which for the sake of protecting theprivacy of participants, is referred to inthe book by the pseudonym the Blades.Theberge was not a member of the team,but gained insider knowledge as a socialscientist observer while attendingpractices, games, and team meetings,travelling and living with the team on out-of-town games and tournaments, andbeing welcome in the locker room and atoff-ice team events.

The resulting scholarly analysis drawnfrom detailed observational records andinterviews offers important insights intoissues within the sociology of sport andgender studies. These includeunderstanding on the formation ofcommunity among women athletes, the“female apologetic” and pressures forathletes to conform to feminine ideals,homophobia and the experiences of lesbianathletes, physicality and women’s experiencesin contact sports, the contributions ofsport to ideologies of gender, the impact of

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

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Matthew Candiotto and Emma Bryant in Rajasthan, India.

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Some of the group in front of Taj Mahal.

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htcommercialization on women’s sports,

and the changing relationship betweenwomen’s and men’s sports.

At the time her research began, therewas very little media and public attentiondirected at women’s team sports. It was actuallya chance encounter by Theberge of one ofthe first televised women’s hockey gameswhich spurred her to take an interest instudying women’s elite team sports further.

Today, there is growing interest andemphasis on women athletes and sportsteams, especially with the advent of women’shockey and basketball as Olympic medalevents, and Theberge’s research is both timelyand significant with respect to documentingthe sociology of this emerging area.

Theberge has recently been namededitor of the Sociology of Sport, theflagship journal of the North AmericanSociety for the Sociology of Sport.

Spanish & LatinAmerican StudiesNew Translation PlanThe Department of Spanish & LatinAmerican Studies has a new translationacademic plan that offers an Option inSpanish/English Translation, a Diploma inSpanish/English Translation, and aSpecialization in Spanish/EnglishTranslation, all of which reflect twoimportant realities: the increasingly closeties between Canada and Latin America,and the growing multicultural nature ofCanadian society. The Translation Option

and Diploma are intended for students who wish to develop strong language andtranslation skills, providing an opportunityto examine a variety of linguistic andstylistic issues directly relevant tounderstand culture, civilization, businessand industry through technical/business/literary translations and their researchcomponent. Students will also beintroduced to technological resources usedtoday in translation and will considervarious new avenues, such as softwarelocalization, where specific translationskills are in demand. The importance andallure of the new Translation Option andDiploma is that they are especially suitablefor those seeking careers in businessoperations in Spanish speaking countries,in government bodies, in church-basedagencies, or in other organizations activein the Hispanic world.

In addition, the Specialization inSpanish/English Translation focuses on thegrowing demand for Spanish/Englishtranslation, which is one of the by-productsof the North American Free TradeAgreement. This reflects the increasingglobalization of international markets, and is designed for students who wish to explore a specific area of secondlanguage acquisition.

Students in any honours or four-yeargeneral academic plan, other thanSpanish, in any faculty of the university,may pursue the Option or the Diploma. The Specialization is open to studentsmajoring in Honours Spanish or Four-YearGeneral Spanish. Regular faculty membersparticipating in the plan are M.C. Sillato,M.A. Gutiérrez, M. Leoni, and A. Fama.

Thirty-fifth Anniversary of the Spanish EmbassyBooks Awards at theDepartment of Spanish &Latin American Studies,October 2000. (From left)Dra. Graça Assis Pacheco(Consulate General ofPortugal), Caroline Rioux,Matthew Parks, CathyKergoat (award winners),José Felix Barrio (Chancellor,Embassy of Spain), MarielaA. Gutiérrez (Chair,Spanish), and RobertKerton (Dean of Arts).

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

15

Arts Alumni Theatre Event

Twelfth NightTuesday, November 13, 2001

Theatre of the Arts

Enjoy an evening performance of Twelfth Night, presented by

UW’s Drama Department.

For more information, please contact

Debra McGonegal1-519-888-4567, ext. 2440,

or emaildmcgoneg@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

UW’s Alumni E-Community AND TO OBTAIN YOUR UW EMAIL ADDRESS VISIT

alumni.uwaterloo.caThe UW Alumni E-Communityprovides you with: • a password-protected directory

service, where alumni can post their contact information and search for former classmates

• an email forwarding for life service

• an Electronic Alumni Directory – your link to UW graduates around the world

• exclusive, free service for UW alumni

• protection against your confidential alumni information

’69 Retirement does not mean slowing downfor Wayne Honsberger (BA Sociology). Since retiringfour years ago following a 23-year career as anemployment counsellor with Human ResourcesDevelopment Canada, he has been deliveringcareer exploration workshops for Fanshawe Collegein Simcoe. He is also working as a supply teacher forthe local school boards for students from kindergartento OAC. Wayne and his wife Sandra have enjoyedtravelling from their home in Simcoe to BritishColumbia, Newfoundland, Russia, and Morocco.

’70 Elizabeth Etue (BA English) lives inToronto, where she is president of Virago SportsCorporation, a women’s sports marketing company.She has also co-authored a book entitled On TheEdge, Women Making Hockey History, and is thepublisher of OverTime, a women’s hockey magazine.

Michel Janisse (PhD Psychology) writes: “After 26 years as a professor and dean of continuingeducation at the University of Manitoba, followedby three years as executive director of co-operativeeducation at the University of Victoria, I retiredlast June 30th to beautiful Winnipeg!”

’77 John Carter (MA History, BA ’74 History) wasrecently awarded his PhD in Philosophy at theUniversity of Leicester, England. The museum studiesdepartment has nominated his thesis, “The Evolution ofMuseums as Centres for Learning: Chapters in CanadianMuseology,” for consideration for the ReferenceAward of the British Library Association. Dr. Cartercontinues to work as a museum advisor for theOntario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture, and Recreation.

’80 Gillian Leigh (PhD Psychology) lives onCape Breton Island, where she is an instructor ofpsychosocial rehabilitation at the Nova ScotiaCommunity College in Sydney. Prior to that, shewas a scientist in addictions research, a rehabilitationpsychologist, and an instructor for the RehabilitationProfessional Practice. Gillian is a member of thePsychologists Board Registration, Ontario andNova Scotia.

’82 For the past 10 years, Pam McMullin (BAPsychology) has kept active as an elementary schoolvolunteer in Brantford. Pam tells us that she is ahomemaker by choice, and that her 15-year-old sonmakes sure that they stay busy, “going from baseballgames, karate (black belt), to guitar and band practices.”

’83 Susan McKnight (BA General) writes:“Working for the world’s greatest boss – a childpsychiatrist – I may just have to come back and domy Masters!” Susan and her two sons Richard (7)and Robert (5) live in Peterborough.

Sally Wylie (née Maderich, BA Psychology) has recently published a textbook entitledObserving Young Children. She also co-directedthe accompanying video. Sally is living inBurlington and works for Humber College inToronto. For more information about the textbook,email sue_mykyjewicz@harcourtbrace.com or visitwww.harcourtbrace-canada.com .

’84 “It was a rewarding experience,”Margaret Marsh (MA English, BA ’80 English) says of earning her BA degree as a maturestudent through night school, correspondence,and on-campus. She is currently a teacher for theWaterloo Region District School Board. “My songraduated from UW in Math in 1994, and myyounger son looks forward to university in 2001,”she says. Margaret is excited about the birth ofher first granddaughter.

Paul Hopkins (MA German) is moving closer to theKW area again, after spending the past 15 years onthe west coast and in Europe. He has recentlybeen hired by Cymfony, an information technologycompany in Williamsville near Buffalo, NY.

“I am responding to the UW Arts Grad! sticker,”writes Bonnie Duimstra (BA Social DevelopmentStudies), who graduated as a mature student.Bonnie now lives in Florida and is a team administratorfor the Florida Everblades, a professional hockeyteam in the East Coast Hockey League.

’85 Mervin Clarke (BA General) is “76 yearsyoung” and has been retired for 16 years from theNorth York Board of Education where he worked for31 years. In a recent update to Arts & Letters, Mervinwrites: “I spend some time travelling, but mostlyspend time with my grandchildren. And being aveteran of WWII, I speak to as many young Canadiansas I can on the horrors of war – I live in hope.”

’86 Karin Eby (BA Psychology) received herBEd (’89) from Lakehead University. She is nowstudying part-time at WLU, taking businesscourses. Karin is self-employed; she has been aprivate educational instructor in Waterloo for thelast five years.

’88 Dianne Daniels Conrath (BA Music) isenjoying sunny California. Last fall, Dianne andher husband David Conrath, who was a UW facultymember for 25 years, moved from Burlington toSan Jose. “We recently met a group of UW alumniat an Octoberfest party in San Jose. There are a lotof Canadians in Silicon Valley and it’s fun to meetpeople from back home,” she says.

Linda Zimmermann-Rempel (BA Social DevelopmentStudies) has been busy. She graduated fromNipissing University with a BEd in 1998, bought anew home in March 2000, and married TimothyRempel on September 29, 2000. Linda is a purchasingassistant at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener.

’89 After several years of working as anaccountant, Mary Wuergler (née Stephens, BAAccountancy Studies) has switched careers. Maryand her husband Paul have opened a Swiss-Canadian English Centre in Barrie, Ontario, wherethey both teach. To check out the centre, visitwww.thescec.com .

’90 Robert Greenfield (MAcc, BA Accounting)reports that he has decided to “leave thecorporate tax world behind,” and has joined thestaff of a regional not-for-profit theatre. Robertis the director of financial operations at the OpenStage of Harrisburg in Harrisburg, USA. You cancontact him at rtghbgpa@yahoo.com .

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class notes

’91 Siv Rogmans (MA German, BA ’89German) writes: “Here is my contribution to Arts & Letters which I enjoy reading! In June 1991,I moved to Calgary and attempted an MSc inLinguistics. I broke off my studies in late 1992.I volunteered with the Red Cross in their ChildAbuse Prevention Program for the next year. In June 1993, I married Graham Irving in abeautiful wedding at Emerald Lake in YohoNational Park, BC, which was attended by manyUW alumni and staff. In June 1994, our son MikaelSven was born, followed by our daughter ElisabethTove, in July 1997. Since September 1999, I’vebeen working as a language instructor at the GermanLanguage School in Calgary teaching grade 8.During the day I am actively involved in Mikael’selementary school and Elisabeth’s nursery school.I would love to hear from old classmates andfriends.” Siv’s email address is irving@agt.net .

“I tell everyone about distance education!”declares Margaret Senyck (BA General) whocompleted her degree without ever seeing thecampus. A retired registered nurse, Margaret livesin Wallaceberg, Ontario, and works part-time asan acting registrar in a local museum.

If you want financial advice, visit John Paul Tedesco(BA Economics/Management Studies) in Belleville.In 1998, he formed his own financial planningcompany, Tedesco & Associates. John was marriedin 1996, and his daughter Alicia was born in 1998.

Helen K. Warner (BA General) writes to us fromLayton, Utah, where she and her husband Malcolmhave just returned from a three-year mission withtheir church. “We are both teaching at theInstitute of Religion at Weber State University inOgden, Utah,” she says. “In my spare time I amdoing family history research at the amazingFamily History Library in Salt Lake City, where lastweek I was looking through tombstoneinscriptions for Milverton, Ontario!”

Kathy White (née Clarke, BA English) lives inOttawa and recently accepted a position as asenior analyst in the Population and Public HealthBranch, Health Canada. She is currently workingon the Economic Burden of Illness in Canada,1998. Kathy has two daughters, Charlotte (3AEnglish Co-op at UW) and Abby (Year 2 FineArts/Music at Concordia).

’92 In response to the question “What’s new in your life?” on our alumni update form,Betty Cameron (BA Sociology) had this to say:“Not much. I’ve been married for almost 17 years,have two absolutely wonderful children (ages 9and 7), have two pet rabbits (who are very busy atEaster time), live on a ‘respectable street’, drivean import (that’s not a van) and am just having agood time!” Betty is a supervisor at the TorontoPublic Library in Etobicoke.

Ng Chiu Chung (BA Fine Arts) is enjoying life inKwai Chung, Hong Kong. “I got married in ’99 andnow have a great life,” he says. Ng is the creativedirector of IRED2000 Technology Ltd., amultimedia company which mostly produces CD-ROMs and designs web pages. “I also play softballand rugby in a Hong Kong league,” he adds.

“The longer I’m at UBC, the more I miss andappreciate UW!” writes Johanna Fisher (née Wiskin,MA Philosophy, BA ’91 Philosophy). Within thisacademic year, Johanna will complete her PhD inPhilosophy at UBC. Her area of specialization isethical theory and biomedical ethics.

Rebecca Lalande (BA Sociology) and her husbandare thoroughly enjoying a new phase in theirlives. They relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina,when her husband Andre was promoted tomanager of advanced business solutions at NortelNetworks. Rebecca writes: “Formerly thecoordinator of volunteer resources at the OttawaCivic Hospital, I have chosen to stay at home withmy two darlings – Nathalie (4) and Sophie whowas born on May 4, 2000. I’d love to hear from anyclassmates who wish to keep in touch!” You cancontact Rebecca at natsmommie@yahoo.com .

Ordained in 1992, Rev. Fr. Bohdan Winnicki (BAReligious Studies) is currently assigned to the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church parish inToronto. He enjoys teaching religion classes to thestudents of Josyf Cardinal Slipyj School in theToronto Separate School Board system and beinginvolved with the Catholic School AdvisoryCouncil. While pursuing a degree in pastoralcounselling education, he is also employed aschaplain at the St. Joseph’s Health Centre inToronto. Fr. Winnicki volunteers as a member ofthe board of directors for the Victim Services ofToronto Inc., which is affiliated with the TorontoPolice Services, and in numerous other spiritualand advisory capacities in the area. Fr. Winnickican be reached at bohwinn@axxent.ca .

’93 Christopher Govan (MAcc) and his wifeClaire welcomed their first child, Esme LiseMailloux Govan, on August 19, 2000. Christopherreports that Claire and Esme are both doing well,and that he is continuing to enjoy his career atOnex Corporation in Toronto.

’94 “Looking forward to proudly displayingmy UW sticker!” writes Jeff Burry (MA PoliticalScience). Jeff recently relocated his family toCharlottetown, PEI, from their home in Newfoundland.He has a new job with Atlantic Canada OpportunitiesAgency as an economic development officer/accountmanager – “very challenging work.” His wife Jill isa teacher, and they have two children, Meghan and Jared.

After graduation, Amy Chung (BA CharteredAccountancy) worked in the Toronto office of Ernst& Young. She transferred to the corporate financedepartment of their Hong Kong office in 1995. Amymarried Christopher Ng (BMath ’92, MSc ’00 HKUST)in Toronto on October 10, 1998. They are pleased toannounce the birth of Cyrus Joshua Ng on August 7, 2000.Baby photos can be viewed at www.photos.yahoo.com/babycyrusng . You can reach Amy and Christopherat amy.chung@hk.eyi.com or chris.ng@jscresvale.com .

Frances Holbrook (BA General) writes: “I have justmoved with my partner Paul Bestfather (BMath’84) to beautiful BC. After graduating from UW,I continued my education at Wilfrid Laurier andgraduated with an MSW in ’96. After a couple ofvacations out here, the call of the mountains andocean was just too much for me, so we hitched thecovered wagon, packed up our goods, and movedwest! Hope all is well at UW.”

Mark Mullaly (BA Drama) has been runningInterthink Consulting Inc., his own managementconsulting firm, since 1990. He sits on the boardof the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival and is thepublic chair of their $8.2 million campaign.

Julie Riehl-Hooftman (BA Psychology/LegalStudies) completed her BEd at the University ofWindsor in 1997. She married Peter Hooftman(BA ’95) in July 2000 and is currently teaching Arts/Special Education at Terry Fox Public School andAlton Public School in the Peel Region, Mississauga.

Antonio Velásquez (BA Spanish) completed his PhDat the University of Toronto in 1999, and wasimmediately hired as an assistant professor in theDepartment of Spanish and Portuguese. He also worksas a sessional lecturer at the University of Guelph.Antonio is working on his second book dedicatedto the study of Central American Literature.

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CLASS NOTES

’95 CharissaSiew Lyng Cheah(BA Psychology)graduated from the University ofMaryland with aPhD in HumanDevelopment (childdevelopment) inDecember 2000,and then spentsome time as a postdoctoralresearch fellow inthe Psychologydepartment at Yale University.Recently, Charissastarted a new position as assistant professor inthe Psychology department at the University ofSaskatchewan. “It would be great if old friendswhom I’ve lost touch with would drop me anemail!” she says. You can contact her atcharissa.cheah@usask.ca .

Jamieson Pouw (BA General) and his wife ChristineLeclair (MES ’98) are excited to announce the birthof their first child, Frederic, on April 6, 2000.Jamie writes: “Timmins is fantastic for us, but wedo miss our friends and the culture of Waterloo.Email any time!” Jamie and Christine can bereached at ccl-jkp@ntl.sympatico.ca .

’96 Laura Dolby (BA French Teaching/AppliedStudies) and her husband Ryan (former Warriorfootball player) recently celebrated the birth oftheir second child, Jessica, who was born onAugust 23, 2000. “She is a little sister for Matthewwho is three,” Laura says. Laura teaches elementaryFrench part-time at Faith Community ChristianSchool in London, Ontario, and Ryan is working forLear Corporation.

Maureen McManus (BA General) appreciates smalltown life in High River, Alberta. She reports that“At age 61, I am enjoying my semi-retirementworking as an editorial assistant for the High RiverTimes, a newspaper founded by Joe Clark’sgrandfather in 1906. Also, I help to promote theMuseum of the Highwood events, and have workedpart-time at the local Alberta politician’s office.There is great variety in a small town. The optometristshere graduated from Waterloo! As well, I am aRotarian, so the club appreciates my publicity.”

’98 Shannon Methot (BA History) and herhusband Brett Partridge celebrated their fourthanniversary in August 2000. They live in Kitchener,and Shannon works as an engraver for AutomationTooling Systems in Cambridge. In 1999, Shannongraduated with a Master’s degree in History fromYork University.

When asked “What’s new in your life?” Irene Brown(BA History) had this to say: “Being 80!” She iswriting her life history for her grandchildren sothey will know what it was like to live through adepression and WWII in Britain. Irene did herdegree by distance education because ofdisabilities – “the effects of long term rheumatoidarthritis,” she says. “I loved it! Better late thannever. (The courses, I mean, not the arthritis!).”

Heidi Vanstone (BA French Teaching) is excited. As a French as a Second Language (FSL) teacher atSt. Teresa Elementary in Waterloo, she is pilotinga new grade 7/8 FSL document, Tous Ados! Heidi ispart of a choir this year and attending an adultfaith formation program offered through theWaterloo Catholic District School Board.

Buying a dog? Talk to Vanessa Day (BA ClassicalStudies). Vanessa has designed and launched a

website called canadogs.com . This site linkspotential puppy/dog owners with purebred dogbreeders, handlers, and trainers. On the site youcan research different breeds of dogs and wherethey are available in Canada. CanaDogs operatesfrom Mill Bay, BC, and Vanessa can be reached atcanadogs@home.com .

’99 Rachel Caldwell (BA English) recentlygraduated with her BEd from Brock University. She is teaching full-time at St. Mary’s High Schoolin Kitchener, in the religious studies and programsupport (special education) departments.

Tiffany Gilchrist (BA Speech Communication)reports that she is enjoying life on Chemong Lake.After graduating from UW, she spent a year at theUniversity of Exeter in England doing her PostGraduate Certificate of Education. She is currentlyteaching core French in grades five to eight for thePeterborough Catholic Board.

Dwight Harris (BA English) writes: “I haveobtained a fulfilling career as a day tradinginstructor for Swift Trade Securities in Cambridge.”Dwight lives in Kitchener and can be reached atdharris@golden.net .

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“Our Woman in Ottawa!”The Department of Spanish & Latin AmericanStudies is proud of Heather Matson (BA ’98,Spanish/Applied Studies/ International Trade). So much so, that the department calls her “OurWoman in Ottawa!” says Mariela Gutiérrez, chair of the department.

Shortly after graduation, Heather joined theCanadian International Development Agency(CIDA) through the Development Officer Programin August 1998. Her first assignment at CIDA’sheadquarters in Hull was working on CIDA’sprograms of co-operation with Russia and Ukraine,where she managed a portfolio of private sector and economic development projects. Over the course of her assignment, Heather was fortunate enough to spend over six months living andworking in Russia and Ukraine, and had the opportunity to travel to various parts of each country,including the Russian Far East and Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. She also served as an internationalelection observer for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) duringUkraine’s presidential elections in the fall of 1999.

In March 2001, Heather took up a new position in CIDA’s International Financial Institutions Divisionworking with the World Bank Group, where she manages relations with the International FinanceCorporation (the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group), as well as private sectordevelopment policy issues.

Heather writes: “I thoroughly enjoy living in Ottawa and want to reassure my friends in theSpanish department that I will eventually work in Latin America!”

Heather and a colleague in the torpedo of a WW2 Soviet submarine in Vladivostok, Russian Far East, July 2000.

CLASS NOTES

’00 Cindy Cowan (BA Economics) describesthe completing of a degree by distance educationas “many, many times a matter of just ‘doing it’.”Her hard work paid off. Cindy was awarded theJames D. Leslie Prize (named in honor of UW’sDistance Education program founder) inrecognition of her first-class standing in 2000.Cindy lives in Pangnirtung, a small Inuitcommunity on Baffin Island.

Cindy Cowan (far left) on a camping trip inPangnirtung on Baffin Island.

’01 Upon graduation, Sabrina Alton (BAPolitical Science) headed to Europe for a six weekbreak, visiting about 14 countries. In September,she moved to Ottawa to start a Masters in PoliticalEconomy at Carleton University. Sabrina ispictured here with Prime Minister Jean Chretienand a friend at a Privy Council Office event.Sabrina worked with the Regulatory AffairsDivision of the Operations Branch in Ottawa on herlast work term (September to December, 2000).

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Arts & Letters is the alumninewsletter of the Faculty of Arts.It is published annually andmailed free of charge to alumni,faculty, and friends of the Faculty of Arts for whom we haveaccurate addresses.

EditorChristine Woods

Editorial AssistantEmily Schaming

ContributorsRobert KertonArts Faculty department chairs & staff

DesignChristine Goucher, Graphics, UW

Circulation 31,000

CLASS NOTES

Where are they now?Illona Haus ‘88by Christine Woods

Haus pursues psychological thrillers

Illona Haus is an award-winning fictionwriter, who has published seven Harlequinnovels of romantic-suspense under the

pseudonym Morgan Hayes. Her novels havebeen sold around the world in English and intranslation. Her two latest books – Falling For

Him and Tall, Dark and Wanted – have a grittierside to them. They draw on her research intothe police homicide unit in Baltimore, Maryland.

Haus graduated from UW in 1988 with aFine Arts degree. For the next eight years sheworked as a secretary in the Englishdepartment at UW, where she started writingHarlequins on the side. Born in the K-W area,she moved to Owen Sound in Ontario’sGeorgian Bay when she was eight. Now, yearslater, she has returned to Owen Sound and iswriting full-time.

Even with her success, Haus has kept herties with UW. In May 1997, she presented a talkat the annual Friends of the Library eventtitled “This Writer’s Life: DisembodiedProcesses.” This past year, she commutedweekly from Owen Sound to teach a WritingPopular Fiction course for the continuingeducation department.

Recently, Arts & Letters caught up with thissuccessful young writer to talk about her career.

What is your most memorable experience as a UW student?My fondest memories of UW are the late, late nightsspent in the Fine Arts studio while in my 3rd and 4thyears, sculpting into the wee hours, feeling at easewith my work and my place in the world. Ah, to be thatyoung and naive again!

After you completed your degree, you became a full-time staff member at UW. How was that different frombeing a student?The sense of home. The sense of belonging. Especiallyafter my degree. While working on my Fine Artsdegree, I was learning and growing, but once I startedworking for the University, I felt as though I wasputting down roots.

Did you decide early on that you wanted to be a fiction writer?Not at all. I had no notions of being a writer, had nevertaken a writing course, and had never even read popularfiction. I was going to be a visual artist, and I came toUW because the Fine Arts department offered me ascholarship. I was at a point where I was eating, living,breathing clay, and dreaming of doing so for the rest ofmy life. Writing, for me, was a very deliberate choice.

Why did you decide to write romance novels?Even though my desire has always been to write mysteriesand thrillers, I turned to romance – namely, “romantic-suspense” – because at the time there were more publishingopportunities in the genre. I knew it was only going tobe temporary, and that it would be my training ground.After almost ten years of being published in the genre,I can look back and say I learned a lot.

In 1997, your writing research took you to the policehomicide unit in Baltimore, Maryland. What motivatedyou to make that move?There was an element of personal romance involved,however, the main reason I moved to Baltimore was to continue my research and enhance my writing with the reality of knowing the American lifestyle. I wouldn’t be where I am today in my writing abilitieswithout the experience.

Your writing direction has changed from romance topsychological thrillers. Did you plan to go in thatdirection, or did it come about as a result of your writing experiences?Honestly, I’m not entirely sure if that’s where I’dalways expected to go. I knew I wanted to writemystery and suspense – where there was something at stake and it was life-and-death – but at some point,I took a dark turn into the realm of psychopathology,police procedures, and forensics...I’ve never lookedback. I can’t write “lite.” I’m into heavy-duty, twisted,tortured, dark psychological suspense. Who knows howI really got here? My friends cringe and wonder howmy mind can work in such warped ways, and I findmyself trying hard not to apologize for it.

You have developed a UW continuing education course in popular fiction. Tell us more about that.Most writers teach at some point in their career. Itwasn’t easy putting the course together, especiallysince I had never taken any writing courses orworkshops myself. I had to start from ground zero,figuring out how I do what I do, in order to teach it. All in all, it was an extremely educational process forme, as much as it was for the students.

Do you have any advice or insights to share with aspiring writers?Write. Read. And write some more. Based on the reviews,the course I teach through continuing education is alsoa big boost in the right direction. In nine weeks, I attemptto give students everything they could possibly needto know in order to write a best-seller (whethermystery, suspense, romance, or any other commercialfiction genre). Yes, I’m self-taught, but I honestlybelieve that if I’d had access to courses such as thosecurrently offered through continuing education, mycareer would have advanced a lot faster than it has.

Who are some of your favourite authors?Tess Gerritsen, T. Jefferson Parker, and David Wiltse.They write heavy-duty characters in impeccably solidstories, and they never let you down.

Could you tell us a little about the new book you areworking on? With one of the best New York agencies behind me, I’m working on a psychological thriller, tentativelytitled “To The Bone.” It is set in Baltimore and involvesa female homicide detective traumatized by a near-fatal beating and the death of her partner, who ispitted against an unlikely pair of serial killers.

Where do you hope to be in five years?Only one place: The New York Times Best-sellers List.Where else?

You can contact Illona Haus at illona@bigfoot.com .

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