Articles by author: Brock University

• Renowned Italian statistician speaking at Brock Monday

  Monday, October 24, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA ADVSORY: R00226 – 21 October 2016

  Complex research takes the co-operation of a wide variety of scientists, statisticians, analysts and other experts.

  As part of the 2016 Fields-Brock Transdisciplinary Distinguished Lecture Series, Dr. Fabrizio Ruggeri, Research Director, CRN-Imathi in Milano, Italy, will give a talk about the Bayesian Methods of Complex Problems.

  Faculty of Mathematics and Science Dean Ejaz Ahmed is pleased to invite Ruggeri, who is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and was one of the first recipients of the Zellner Medal, the most prestigious award given by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.

  Ruggeri will present some of the work he and his co-authors have done in a number of different fields and discuss how complex systems arise in many disciplines such as environmental sciences, engineering, biology and medicine.

  The talk will take place Monday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in Brock University’s Pond Inlet.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock research addresses migrant worker loneliness, isolation

  Monday, October 24, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00225 – 21 October 2016

  It can be a lonely, frustrating experience for thousands of agricultural workers in Niagara and across Canada.

  Brock University graduate student Heryka Miranda and her supervisor, Nancy Francis, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology, are researching methods that migrant farm workers can use to address feelings of homesickness and isolation.

  The theory behind Miranda’s methods is called “movement-based expressive arts therapy.”

  “Expressive arts therapy includes song, music, dance, visual arts, voice work, knitting; it could be any kind of artistic modality for the purposes of healing,” says Miranda.

  “Movement is a very unconscious, subliminal mode of communication and because of that, we will feel things, emotions, that we might have otherwise parked or pushed aside,” says Francis.

  Mexican and Guatemalan women and men across Niagara attended Miranda’s “dance for relaxation” sessions, where they participated in breathing exercises, guided visualizations, improvised movement to music and engaged in meditative drawing.

  Miranda is studying what these activities mean to the workers and assessing how these activates impact the workers’ lives. She hopes to develop programs that will increase migrant workers’ quality of life in Niagara and build bridges between them and the wider community.

  Juan Luis Mendoza de la Cruz, one of Miranda’s research partners, is a worker from Mexico employed on a flower farm.

  Mendoza and Miranda have developed a dance that draws upon techniques from Indigenous choreographers and artists in the U.S. and Canada. The two perform periodically for the community.

  “This (the dancing) is comforting for me, since it gives me light and motivation to follow my life projects, such as working with sunflowers, flowers that have been an inspiration to me all my life,” says Mendoza.

  Miranda and Mendoza will be performing their dance, The Sunflower Man, on Parliament Hill Wednesday, Oct. 26. Media and the community are invited to watch their rehearsal in the dance studio of Walker Complex, Brock University on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 3 p.m.

  See more about the story in The Brock News

  See video: Expressive Arts in Niagara’s Migrant Community

  Contacts:
  Heryka Miranda, graduate student, Department of Kinesiology, Brock University, hm14iv@brocku.ca

  Nancy Francis, professor, Department of Kinesiology, Brock University, nancy.francis@brocku.ca

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases