How can journalists interrogate and overcome the colonial gaze? The question is key to the work of Lia Tarachansky - filmmaker, journalist, and York PhD candidate in Cinema and Media Studies - who has explored power relations and colonialism in the Middle East, Canada, and elsewhere. Tarachansky was one of last year's honorees in the Elia Scholars Program, York's most prestigious internal award, facilitated by the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Learn more about Lia Tarachansky work here: http://www.liatarachansky.com

This week, two York PhD candidates illuminate underexplored stories from India. FIRST: In 2018, India's Supreme Court legalised homosexuality, but the fight for equality isn't over yet. Shraddha Chatterjee (Feminist & Women's Studies) will explore how lesbian and bisexual women and trans-masculine persons continue to live in conditions of heightened precarity. PLUS: The National Food Security Act came into effect in 2013. Guillaume Dandurand (Social Anthropology) is focusing on one aspect of it: the ration card. After spending 17 months in New Delhi, Dandurand discusses how the digitisation of the card has generated some systemic exclusions.

In post-conflict Burma/Myanmar, an Indigenous group seeks to establish and govern their own protected area. Relations with the central government are strained. York Geography MA student Andrew Paul has witnessed the process. We discuss how western conservationists can help Indigenous groups without becoming colonisers, and what it's like to travel by foot to the Karen State.

What can dance artists learn from studying the movements of animals? Jonathan Osborn spent years at the zoo trying to answer this question for his York Dance PhD. PLUS: Aurora is an innovative new eLearning platform to help PhDs and Postdocs explore non-academic career paths. We talk to Carolyn Steele (York Career Centre) and Maren Wood (Beyond the professoriate) about bringing Aurora to life, and the new world facing graduates.

Learn more about Aurora: http://careers.yorku.ca/students-and-new-grads/graduate/

You can't hold a memory or put it under a microscope, but without our memories, we lose our identities. No wonder memory is such a political battleground. York English professor Julia Creet, one of the leading international scholars in the field of Cultural Memory Studies, discusses the political implications of memory, and the ideological factors that have turned genealogy into a booming industry.

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Julia Creet's forthcoming book "The Geological Sublime" traces the culture, historical, and corporate histories of the world's most profitable genealogy databases. Preorder here: https://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/genealogical-sublime

Thomas Loebel discusses his academic career before becoming the dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, including his shared love of music and American literature.

This week, we talk to graduate students who are creating space for different perspectives in academia. First: Janelle Curry (MA candidate in Social Anthropology) discusses the Queer Graduate Student Caucus - the first group of its kind for graduate students at York.

Plus: psychology grad student Kojo Mintah and undergraduate student Jean-Marc Moke discuss their poster project to shed light on the history of black psychologists, and discuss the importance of representation in the curriculum, and the group Black Students in Psychology at York University.

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To learn more about the Queer Graduate Student Caucus, contact [email protected] or visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/680328422369474/

To learn more about Black Students in Psychology at York University, contact [email protected].

In 1914, a group of Indian immigrants chartered a boat to Canada, but found that not all subjects of the British Empire could travel freely in the colonies. Governor General Award-winning filmmaker Ali Kazimi (professor in the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design) explored the the Komagata Maru boat in his 2004 film CONTINUOUS JOURNEY, and looks back on what this story tells us about Canada's identity.

THEN: Since 1991, the Inuit female art/filmmaking collective Arnait has used a variety of media to tackle essential issues: tradition, self-determination, family, mental health, racism, and environmental destruction. Curator Alissa Firth-Eagland discusses a retrospective exhibition of their work, now on display at the Art Gallery of York University.

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On Tuesday, May 14 from 2-5pm, Ali Kazimi will take part in a screening and discussion of CONTINUOUS JOURNEY at the Nat Taylor Cinema. The event is part of the Department of Cinema and Media Arts' Summer Institute '19. To learn more: https://events.ampd.yorku.ca/event/free-screening-ali-kazimis-film-continuous-journey/

"Arnait Ikajurtigiit: Women helping each other" runs at the Art Gallery of York University until June 23. To learn more: http://agyu.art/project/5335/

What does a long-dead playwright - arguably the central figure in the western canon - have to tell us about gender? York English prof Deanne Williams has conducted groundbreaking research on Medieval and Renaissance literature, including the groundbreaking study "Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood." She's here to discuss the immortal Bard, and where the figure of the girl fits into his oeuvre.

On this episode, we turn our attention to man's best friend. First: Film Production MA student Sophy Romvari discusses chronicling the bond between owners and their ageing dogs for her CBC short film IN DOG YEARS. Plus: YFile editor Jenny Pitt-Clark tells her story of rescuing a dog.

To see IN DOG YEARS, go to: https://www.cbc.ca/shortdocs/shorts/in-dog-years