This human rainbow is made up of students at session 3 of this year's Student Life 101, July 22 and 23. Four of the scheduled eight sessions are complete. The next four will bring another 400 students and 250 parents to Waterloo, says Gabrielle Finnie, one of the co-ordinators. "I encourage staff, faculty, and students to welcome these students when they see them on campus."

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New disabilities journal; other notes

The Canadian Journal of Disability Studies is being launched this fall, with Jay Dolmage (left), Waterloo professor of English, as its first editor.

Dolmage “has been a disability advocate literally all his life,” writes Helen Henderson, in an article in the Toronto Star, July 23. “His brother Matthew, who died in 2004, a month before his 30th birthday, had cerebral palsy and fought for the right of all people with disabilities to take charge of their lives. His family, including parents Jim and Marilyn, and sister, Leah, were early leaders in the fight for inclusion.”

On his Waterloo webpage Dolmage explains: “I have always been involved in disability rights issues and advocacy, and during work towards a PhD at Miami University of Ohio, I discovered that I could bring my interest in disability into the study and teaching of rhetoric and writing. My dissertation (and a subsequent book project) focuses on the rhetorical history of disability, and the development of bodily rhetorics.”

The new peer-reviewed scholarly journal, to be published by the Canadian Disability Studies Association, will be of interest “to scholars and students from across all academic disciplines, as well as anyone involved in disability arts, advocacy, community organization or policy,” according to its website.

The inaugural issue will focus on the question: “What is Canadian disability studies?” More specifically: "Does disability studies have a Canadian perspective? What is unique about Canadian views, methods, and approaches to the field? Conversely, why does Canada need disability studies – in the academy, in policy, in advocacy, in activism? What are the key works in Canadian disability studies scholarship? What are the future directions for this field? What are the spatial, social, cultural, political, and economic contexts of Canadian disability studies?"

The editor invites contributors to consider these and other questions, "or to exemplify Canadian disability studies through their research and writing." The deadline for manuscript submissions for the first issue is September 1.

Waterloo rugby women play for Canada
Two Waterloo athletes, Sam Eyles (right) and Briana Cunningham, have been chosen to play for Team Canada at the first women's collegiate All-Americans vs. Canadian All-Stars rugby match this week in Lake Placid, New York, at the National Sports Academy.

Eyles and Cunningham were two of 25 Canadian university rugby players chosen to compete in the event, which is being held to encourage the growth of rugby in North America. The Canadian squad will play the United States on July 28 and 31.

Eyles, who was this year’s Waterloo female athlete of the year, graduated this spring and will be taking her master’s in human health and nutritional sciences at Guelph. Cunningham, an OUA all-star, is now in fourth year in applied health sciences. More information at Waterloo Athletics.

MS Bike Tour speeding this way
More than 500 cyclists will be swarming oton campus in mid-August, staying at Waterloo residences during the annual Rona MS Bike Tour, which will have them cycling up to 200 km in two days. Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada organizers are asking for volunteers to help with the fundraising event.

“We need your help to ensure cyclists are cheered through the finish line, checked into their rooms, given their t-shirts and prizes, entered into the raffle, and nourished so they are comfortable during their stay in Waterloo, and have the energy to ride back to Acton on Sunday morning,” writes Nicole Dube. “Shifts are approximately 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (flexible), with meals and breaks included.” If interested, email nicole.dube@mssociety.ca or call 1-800-268-7582, ext. 3107 for more information or to sign up. Dube hints: “This can also go toward a high school student’s 40 hours of volunteer work.”

Potluck for Somalia
Staff in the Office of Research have organized a Potluck to raise money for relief of the famine in Somalia. Everyone is welcome. It's being held Thursday, 10 – 11 a.m., in the Waterloo International Boardroom (Needles Hall room 1116 ). Set-up will begin 9:30 a.m. There will be a jar for donations: any money contributed will go to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). If you are interested in attending, providing food, or helping with the event, or want more information, contact Karen Browne (kjbrowne@uwaterloo.ca; ext. 38557) or Emmanuel Acheta (eoacheta@uwaterloo.ca; ext. 33283); this will also help the organizers gauge numbers. Here is an overview of the crisis in Somalia.

Shad Valley Open Day showcases creativity
“Exceptional high school students are brought together for the month of July each summer at the Shad Valley program where they work together to invent entirely new products and services,” says a Shad Valley media advisory.

“The students from grades 10, 11 and 12 live in residence at one of 10 participating university campuses across Canada. The University of Waterloo is in its 29th year hosting the program. Throughout the month, Waterloo faculty and industry leaders run workshops, lectures and other team-building exercises for the students.

“The Shad Valley program culminates in an Open Day that showcases the students’ entrepreneurship projects. The new inventions focus on a theme, which this year explores how to improve the quality of life for a Canadian child with a disability.”

An example is pictured, left, as David Liang, Shad Valley participant, explains his team's product: the “Xogoboard,” an accessible dance mat designed to be used with gaming consoles.

Open Day this year is Thursday, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m., when the Shads’ project displays and prototypes will be on view in the Great Hall of  Conrad Grebel University College. For More information or to RSVP, contact program manager Kim Boucher at kabouche@uwaterloo.ca.

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New prof explores Mennonite past

Adapted from a Conrad Grebel University College News release

Troy Osborne (left) was drawn to Conrad Grebel University College, a new assistant professor as of July 1, by Grebel’s reputation as a major centre for the study of sixteenth-century Anabaptist and Mennonite history. He says he hopes to continue the tradition of producing scholarship that contributes to both the historical discipline and the identity and life of the church.

“What makes Grebel an exciting place to work is the way its faculty contribute to their denominational communities while they pursue rigorous scholarly agendas,” Osborne says. “Grebel’s mission and values resonate deeply with my own identity, which has been shaped by a range of Mennonite institutions: family, church, colleges, seminary, and the InterMenno exchange program.”

Osborne is a historian whose research and teaching interests centre on Mennonite history and the Reformation and particularly on the development of the Dutch Anabaptist tradition. He is revising his dissertation, Saints into Citizens: Mennonite discipline, social control, and religious toleration in the Dutch Golden Age, for publication and translating the sixteenth-century Dutch martyrology Het Offer des Heeren (The Sacrifice of the Lord) as part of the Classics of the Reformation series.

He comes to Grebel from Bluffton University in Ohio, where for the past three years he taught humanities, European and world history, Europe on film, medieval and early modern European women’s history, political theory, the Reformation, and Mennonite history and thought. Earlier, he studied the cultural history of religion at the University of Minnesota and theology and ethics at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

On visiting the Grebel campus, Osborne says he was struck by “the number of times that both the residential and the graduate students expressed a deep appreciation for the relationships they had with their professors. Without exception, they said that Grebel’s greatest strength comes from its sense of community. I will enjoy helping to build that community through my teaching, research, and collegiality.”

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