Media releases

• Brock prof’s Love Actually spoof goes viral

  Tuesday, December 08, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 8 December 2020 – R0182

  Brock University Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Lori MacNeil prides herself on connecting with students and making them feel engaged in the classroom.

  So, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced her third-year genetics course to go fully online, she wanted to make sure that connection didn’t get lost.

  Since the start of the Fall Term, MacNeil has been making increasingly complex introductions to her weekly BIOL 3P51 lesson videos. They have ranged from a brief magic show from Arrested Development’s Gob Bluth to her starting the class with a ‘press conference’ in front of the Four Seasons (Total Landscaping).

  But her most recent intro topped them all, with MacNeil recording a holiday-themed mashup video with clips from the famous doorstep scene in the movie Love Actually. MacNeil replaces the character Mark with herself, using paper signs to silently tell Juliet (played by Keira Knightly) about how she hopes they’ll be in a classroom together again soon … but how in the meantime, Juliet still has to watch one more lecture, and study for an upcoming exam.

  MacNeil said once she came up with the concept and recorded the video on her front porch, it took around five hours to edit the mashup.

  Since being posted to Twitter Wednesday, Dec. 2, the video has been viewed more than 67,000 times and has received hundreds of retweets and comments. The original Tweet has now reached more than 1.2 million people.

  “It’s just insane,” she said of the reaction online. “I think it resonated with people doing online teaching right now and struggling to make that connection, especially now as the holidays are approaching.”

  More important than the number of views, however, is the reaction the intros garner from her students.

  “It’s about trying to engage the students and get them excited about new lecture content,” said MacNeil, a professor at Brock since 2014. “The online system has a tendency to feel a little impersonal, with students watching slides on a computer while listening to a voiceover explain the content. When I am teaching in person, I often start class with music and funny memes or gifs to make the students laugh and feel comfortable in the classroom. I wanted to capture that same feeling in the virtual environment.”

  The most recent video appeared at the start of the 12th and final lecture of the BIOL 3P51 genetics course, which MacNeil says is probably a good thing.

  “I’m lucky because if I had to top myself again, I’d probably be off trying to make a feature film right now,” she said with a laugh. “When I first started doing it, I thought the students would find it funny and it would catch their attention; then I just kept trying to outdo myself.”

  Originally from Halifax, MacNeil finds it important and rewarding to interact with her students — even if that has to happen through a computer screen.

  “I think having them see me be a bit goofy and letting them see my personality gives the whole course experience a more personal feel,” said MacNeil, whose innovative and engagement-centered lessons earned her the Math and Science Council Excellence in Teaching and Student Engagement Award in 2016.

  Third-year Medical Sciences student Noah James said his anticipation over what MacNeil comes up with has been growing each week.

  “Dr. MacNeil has yet to fail in putting a smile across my face,” he said. “Not only are the introductions creative, but she has hit on so many contemporary pop culture references just adding to the overall quality. She has done an incredible job at keeping learning fun this semester while taking full advantage of the digital lessons.”

  Brock University Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Lori MacNeil is available for media interviews.

  An embeddable version of the video can be found at youtu.be/F1unLF-MInQ

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Confronting violence against women starts with what we teach our children: Brock researcher 

  Friday, December 04, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 04 December 2020 – R0181

  As Canadians mark Sunday’s anniversary of the 1989 murders of 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, many will question how, 31 years later, attitudes have changed regarding violence against women.

  Robyn Bourgeois does not like the answer.

  The Associate Professor in Brock University’s Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies laments that rates of violence against women have, at best, remained virtually unchanged.

  “In fact, preliminary details from the anti-violence sector suggest that violence against women is on the rise due to the pandemic,” said Bourgeois, who is also Brock’s Acting Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement.

  She points out that this year in Canada, between April 1 and May 15 alone, nine women were murdered in addition to the 13 who died in the Nova Scotia mass shooting, a total of 22 women slain in less than seven weeks.

  “I was 11 years old when the École Polytechnique massacre occurred, and I hoped that by the time I reached my current age of 42 — now 31 years later — we would have made significant strides to end violence against women in Canada. Yet the events of this spring signal that we still have so much work to do.”

  An Indigenous woman who was herself a survivor of multiple forms of violence, Bourgeois is a frequent public speaker on the issue. She calls gender-based violence a deadly pandemic akin to COVID-19, and says Canada needs to do better for all women, especially marginalized women who are more likely to be targeted for violence.

  “For example, statistics suggest that Indigenous women are eight times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be murdered,” Bourgeois said. “We also know that women of colour, immigrant and refugee women, 2SLGTBQQIA (Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex and Asexual) people, poor and working-class women, women with disabilities and/or mental health issues, and those involved in the sex trade are extraordinarily vulnerable to violence.”

  Bourgeois said changing societal attitudes starts in childhood, by teaching new generations to understand that gender-based violence is abhorrent and incommensurate with human values.

  She said anti-violence education is needed not only within schools but also for parents.

  “We need to disrupt cycles of violence within our families by providing people with the non-violent coping strategies. From birth, my own kids have not only been raised without violence, but have also learned to understand things like consent, respecting and honouring differences among peoples, and not using violence as a survival tool in the world.”

  To mark the École Polytechnique anniversary, Brock’s Office of Human Rights and Equity and the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies organized several events, including a virtual panel discussion, ‘Gender and Sexual Violence in a Pandemic,’ held earlier this week.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Maryanne St. Denis, Writer/Web Editor, Brock University Marketing & Communications
  mstdenis@brocku.ca or 905-246-0256

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  Categories: Media releases