In spite of falling ratings, one recent trend of contemporary Academy Awards ceremonies has steadily risen in popularity—fashion commentary. Millions of creators across social media channel their inner Miranda Priestly each year to judge the always extravagant, sometimes ostentatious outfits worn by celebrities on different red carpets throughout the night.[Read More…]
Articles by Signy Harnad
André Brock charts the hidden history of Black cybercultures
André Brock, an associate professor of media studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, drew on the connections between Blackness, social media platforms, and Western technoculture in a webinar held on Jan. 12. The lecture was part of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technologies speaker series, which was[Read More…]
Pop Dialectic: The duality of dark teen dramas
Content Warning: Mentions of drug addiction and sexual violence. Even for university students, TV shows that centre teenage characters in and around high school have widespread appeal. Skins, which premiered in 2007, and Euphoria, which premiered in 2019, stand apart from other shows for their brutal depictions of partying, drug[Read More…]
Principal Suzanne Fortier to step down on eve of Fall 2022 term
In a message sent to the McGill community on Jan. 7, Suzanne Fortier announced she will be stepping down nearly one year before the end of her second five-year term as principal and vice-chancellor, effective Aug. 31, 2022. On Fortier’s behalf, McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle, explained that, having[Read More…]
McGill cancels all Winter 2022 exchanges and independent study abroad programs, students start petition
In an email sent to students on Oct. 5, Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau announced that all outgoing exchange and independent study abroad programs would be cancelled for the Winter 2022 semester. Labeau attributed the decision to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding public health regulations, vaccination rates, and restrictions, all of which[Read More…]
‘Beautiful World, Where Are You?’ is a stirring love letter to us all
Mastering the will-they-will-they-not tragicomedy is no enviable task in this day and age. When the world is quite literally on fire, we find ourselves confronted by questions of how cringey Tinder messages, first-dates-gone-wrong, and fleeting insecurities could possibly matter to us in the grand scheme of it all. Well, Sally[Read More…]
Met Gala 2021 fashion roundup: ‘American Independence’
The return of the Met Gala marked the return of its most classic staples: Extravagant looks, varying adherence to the yearly theme, twitter commentary, and men in black suits. Quannah Chasinghorse For model and Indigenous activist Quannah Chasinghorse, the gala’s theme of “American independence” was an opportunity to remind everyone[Read More…]
Safety concerns loom as WALKSAFE and DriveSafe halt operations
Content warning: Discussion of physical and sexual violence. Two volunteer-based security services on campus are halting operations, with a firm date for resumption yet to be determined. Run by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), WALKSAFE announced the suspension of their regular services on Facebook Sept. 13, following SSMU[Read More…]
‘He’s All That’ is a hollow ode to ’90s teen nostalgia
As if by mass psychosis, filmmakers have been scrambling to rehash ‘90s movies in all their zany glory. Case in point: He’s All That, a gender-swapped revamp of 1999’s She’s All That. On the surface, the remake has all the trappings of a potential Netflix hit: Lucrative source material that[Read More…]
McGill tumbles from 40th to 44th in Times Higher Education ranking
McGill ranks 44th among the top 1,662 universities in the world, and third in Canada, according to the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings released Sept. 1. This signals a four-spot drop from McGill’s previous 2021 placement. The London-based ranking organization grounds its ratings in 13 separate performance indicators[Read More…]
McGill researchers spearhead Canadian Election Misinformation Project
The Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO), an interdisciplinary research collaboration between McGill University and the University of Toronto, announced the launch of the Canadian Election Misinformation Project on Aug. 18. The initiative is headed by Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics, and Communications and associate professor at the Max[Read More…]
Ongoing Divest McGill boycott of Metro continues into March
Five members of Divest McGill met to picket outside the Plateau’s St-Hubert Metro location on March 8 as part of a boycott campaign launched in summer 2020. The small but energetic crowd wielded signs in front of the store for over one hour, braving temperatures below freezing as they engaged[Read More…]
Students in Mind visionary event re-imagines mental health beyond the pandemic
The McGill student organization, Students in Mind (SiM) hosted a three-day conference, “Forging a New Normal,“ from Jan. 29 to Jan. 31, focussing on the successes and drawbacks that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed on mental health. The eighth annual student-run conference, conducted via Zoom, consisted of several keynote presentations[Read More…]
Rest in prose: How COVID-19 is affecting the obituary industry
She lived through the Spanish flu. He portrayed a suave MI6 agent on the big screen. She invented the windshield wiper. He remained a bon vivant into his ninth decade. She came to be known as “the people’s princess.” These are some of the subjects of the newspaper’s obituary pages.[Read More…]
‘The Politics of Representation’ panel discusses accountability in Canadian politics
McGill’s Women in House program hosted “The Politics of Representation: Fostering Accountability and Integrity in Governance” on Nov. 5 to explore the significance and value of female participation in Canadian government institutions. The panel, conducted via Zoom, featured McGill Political Science Professor Kelly Gordon, L1 Law student Chloe Kemeni, and[Read More…]
Protestors remember victims of police violence and call for SPVM budget cuts
Over 200 protesters gathered to call for the defunding of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) on Oct. 24 in a demonstration organized by the Defund the Police Coalition and Justice for Victims of Police Killings. This demonstration marks the 11th annual Justice for Victims of[Read More…]
‘Tenet’ is an emotionally hollow puzzle
Leave it to Christopher Nolan to galvanize moviegoers into returning to multiplexes after months of living-room movie nights—only this time, at a limited capacity, donning masks and safely distancing from one another. Released in Canada on Aug. 26, Tenet has been tasked with the responsibility of carrying an ailing theatre industry[Read More…]
The Royalmount Drive-In offers a nostalgic escape during uncertain times
It’s a familiar scene in popular culture: Groups of teenagers and families packed in their cars, radio dials tuned to FM signals, billowing cigarette smoke forming clouds in the projector light. Such was the magic of the drive-in cinema, with its eclectic blend of innocence and rebellion, sociability and privacy.[Read More…]
Judicial Board renders 2020 SSMU Winter Constitution invalid, SSMU responds
In a unanimous decision made on Aug. 17, the SSMU Judicial Board (J-Board) rendered the 2020 SSMU Winter Constitution, which was put to vote without a French translation, invalid. During a Board of Directors (BoD) meeting on Aug. 20, SSMU voted not to ratify the J-Board’s decision, sending the judgment[Read More…]
McGill aims for online and in-person options after Education Minister’s decision to reopen schools
McGill is standing by its May 11 decision to offer instruction primarily through online delivery platforms for the Fall 2020 semester after Education Minister Jean-François Roberge’s announcement on June 16 that schools across Quebec can reopen in September. McGill will conduct all essential class activities through remote instruction, but hopes[Read More…]
COVID-19 calls for a shift in how McGill students view the elderly
Michelle Wilson was shocked to find her father looking unrecognizable during a window visit to his nursing home in May, his lips cracked and arms ridden with sores, despite reassurance from staff that he was doing just fine. He died shortly thereafter. There’s no shortage of stories like this: Blood-curdling[Read More…]
‘Influence’ presents a damning portrait of Lord Tim Bell
Influence, written and directed by Montreal-based documentary filmmakers Diana Neille and Richard Poplak, sets forth a captivating portrayal of Lord Tim Bell, the British advertising executive who co-founded the public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, and helped to put Margaret Thatcher into 10 Downing Street. Influence does not get lost in the[Read More…]
McGill prepares to celebrate the class of 2020 with virtual convocation ceremonies
McGill will celebrate the class of 2020 on June 18 and June 19 with virtual convocation ceremonies due to physical distancing regulations spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier announced on April 24 that the in-person convocation ceremony will be postponed until Spring 2021 provided that public[Read More…]