An 18-month residency funded by the SETI Institute will support Incubator Art Lab team member Domenica Mediati to inspire youth in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Through the institute’s artist-in-residence program, Mediati will receive the Beyond Silos STEAM residency, which supports educators in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math in developing interdisciplinary teaching approaches that integrate art and science.

Her project “Cosmic Communities: Stories of Life Beyond Our World,” in collaboration with Incubator Art Lab director Jennifer Willet, aims to develop a curriculum to engage high school students in Grades 11 and 12.

“We will create downloadable workbooks, digital video recourses, and curriculum packages for teachers and host workshops for high school students and local community members,” says Mediati.

“These digital and downloadable educational packages will support SETI’s astrobiological topics by integrating SETI scientists with hands-on bioart, microbiology, microscopy and drawing, illustration, and digital animation practices.”

Mediati is an intermedia artist and a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Education and School of Creative Arts. She works across painting, drawing, digital animation, and bioart practices, creating landscapes and characters that reflect and explore human and non-human narratives emphasizing microbiology. Since 2019, she has worked at Incubator Art Lab as a researcher, lab manager, and director of educational outreach programming.

The Beyond Silos residency aims to break down disciplinary silos in art and science and create meaningful learning situations to foster innovation, risk-taking, and creative problem solving. Educators receive a stipend and work with SETI Institute scientists, educators, and partners to develop their projects.

Bettina Forget, director of the institute’s artist-in-residence program, says Mediati’s proposal topped a competitive field.

“Dominica’s innovative project stood out as it perfectly intersects with SETI Institute research and strongly foregrounds artistic practice in STEAM education,” Forget says.

The SETI Institute is a non-profit research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and to share that knowledge with the world.

Thaddeus Holownia (BA 1972) recalls his time as an undergraduate student at the University of Windsor as the beginning of his art career.

A visual artist, educator, letterpress printer, and publisher, he was honoured earlier this month with the Governor General’s Award for Artistic Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts.

“It was through the mentorship of Professor Bill Law in fine arts and Professor Stuart Selby in communication arts that I gained the confidence to follow my creative voice,” Holownia says. “Windsor was where I was inspired to create my first body of work entitled Headlighting — portraits of people with their cars. It was truly a special time.”

Holownia is best known as a landscape photographer whose works have been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including The Nature of Nature, The Photographs of Thaddeus Holownia 1976–2016, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; The Terra Nova Suite, a 25-year survey of his work in Newfoundland and Labrador at the provincial gallery The Rooms in St. John’s; and 24 Tree Studies for Henry David Thoreau at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.

His 1998 mid-career retrospective exhibition, Extended Vision: Photographs by Thaddeus Holownia 1978–1997, organized by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, travelled across Canada and to the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City.

A photograph from Thaddeus Hołownia’s series Jolicure Pond.

In nominating him for the Governor General’s Award, Mireille Eagan, curator of contemporary art at The Rooms, and John Leroux, manager of collections and exhibitions for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, cited his distinctive interpretation of time, place, and the natural environment.

“Hołownia’s photography goes beyond mere documentation, offering a contemplative reflection on the environment and its evolution over time. It is a profound dedication to place and the act of looking,” they wrote. “His work, marked by technical excellence and emotional depth, captures the beauty and complexity of our world and encourages a deeper reflection on our place within it.”

After a 41-year teaching and administrative career in the Department of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville New Brunswick, Holownia retired in 2018 and now spends his time at his studio in Jolicure, New Brunswick.

The Governor General’s Award carries with it a $25,000 prize and a bronze medallion.

It is just the latest honour for Holownia, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fulbright fellow, and an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2015, he received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for High Achievement in the Visual Arts from artsNB and the Order of New Brunswick.

Watch a video portrait of Holownia:

Events March 18 and 19 as part of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) Week will foreground student perspectives on inclusivity and mental health.

At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, “Pathways to Inclusion” aims to foster a more inclusive and accessible campus environment. It promises practical advice to help students navigate and thrive in the university setting, strategies for educators to support and accommodate students with diverse needs, and insights from individuals with specific accessibility needs, sharing their experiences and what they wish others understood.

Facilitated by the Disability Studies Students Association, this half-hour online workshop will discuss enhance accessibility and create a sense of belonging for all students.

Register to receive the link to attend.

On Wednesday, Student Health, Counselling & Wellness Services will host a one-hour drop-in consultation session to gather information that will help inform the development of Student Mental Health Strategy 2.0. Participants will consider 10 questions displayed around the room, posting written responses on the walls for other participants to read or in closed boxes to share privately with the project team.

The “Words on Walls” consultation session will run 9 to 10 a.m. in the Freed-Orman Centre, Assumption Hall. No registration is required; all responses will be analyzed anonymously as group data. Find more information on the event website.

This data collection activity has received exemption from review from the Research Ethics Board.

Find a full schedule of events from March 17 to 21 on the EDID Week website.

The tentative agreement reached on Feb. 26 between the University and Unifor 2458 Part- and Full-Time Office and Clerical Staff has been ratified.

The new collective agreement will be in effect for two years. 

Highlights include a 0 per cent wage increase in 2025, a 2 per cent wage increase in 2026, and students performing office and clerical duties (excluding co-op, Work Study/Ignite) now being recognized in the bargaining unit.

The collective agreement will be posted to the Human Resources website.

The University is grateful to the negotiating teams for their dedication and to the campus community for its patience and support.

Timely updates on the status of ongoing collective bargaining will continue to be provided on the Labour News webpage.

A series of four interactive workshops on gender-based violence is designed to engage men and boys in conversations about intervention strategies, allyship, and the power of speaking up.

“If not you, then who? If not now, then when?” is sponsored by the Sahra Bulle Foundation in partnership with Unifor Local 2458.

It will explore four key themes:

• Silence is Not Protection, Silence is Permission
• Waiting for a Hero — Why the Change Starts with You
• Single Steps Make the Mile — Small Actions, Big Impact
• The Value of Advocacy — Your Voice, Your Action, Your Stand

The workshops are scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Unifor hall at 3400 Somme Ave. on the last Thursday of each month: March 27, April 24, May 29, and June 26.

Find more details on the VP, People Equity and Inclusion event webpage. Registration is free but space is limited.

A monument to 300 years of francophone settlement in Windsor-Essex, especially Sandwich, will enjoy a public unveiling Friday, March 21.

The canoe-shaped monument was originally displayed at Place Concorde in Forest Glade. Because of its fragile state, it was disassembled and has now been reconstructed. Danny Maltais, a local francophone and Indigenous artist, was charged with reconceptualizing the canoe, which will now be placed near the new Gordie Howe International Bridge on the Detroit River.

The project was made possible by the Association of Franco-Ontarian Communities of Windsor-Essex-Chatham-Kent (ACFO WECK), with the sponsorship of the community benefits plan of the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the Francophone Community Grants Program of the Government of Ontario.

"We wanted to move our historical legacy to where it all began, close to the river, where Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac arrived by canoe,” says Gisèle Dionne, executive director of ACFO WECK. “This monument has been our identity for over 300 years. It's part of our roots.”

The unveiling will take place at 90 Mill St. at 5:30 p.m. Friday and is open to all as part of the celebration of Francophonie Month.

Information Technology Services reminds campus users of the Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge to clear up UWindsor OneDrive and Outlook accounts in advance of the upcoming Microsoft storage changes.

Looking to make a dent in your digital files? To reduce large files in your OneDrive, try using the sort by size filter.

You can sort your OneDrive folders and files by size to identify large files such as old class or lecture recordings, photos, videos, or ZIP files that you no longer need. If any large files are duplicated or no longer necessary, delete them. Be sure to also clear out your Downloads folder if it’s stored on OneDrive.

Refer to the Microsoft Storage Knowledge-Base articles for more information on how to clean up your digital storage.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge for a chance to win a $50 UWinCash gift card.

As a reminder, beginning April 7, the following storage limits will be implemented:

In addition, Teams and SharePoint sites will also be limited to 25 GB of storage and shared mailboxes will be limited to 20GB.

If you are currently using more than the allotted storage amounts for your account type listed above, you will need to start reducing duplicate and redundant data in your UWindsor Outlook email account and OneDrive to get below the threshold. Users who may require more than the allotted quota for work, academic, or research purposes can submit a request to IT Services for review.