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Building team culture

Tiger Cumming
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Building team culture
During his time at Dal, Anton Berry has helped men’s basketball capture five AUS gold medals. He hopes to bring this winning pedigree to the Tiger’s women’s basketball team. (Photo by Trevor MacMillan)

After 11 years as head coach of the women’s basketball program at Dalhousie University, Anna Stammberger will retire this spring. Stammberger, who graduated from Dal in 1985 and played at the 1984 Summer Olympics with the Canadian National Women’s Basketball Team, will be succeeded on an interim basis by Anton Berry on April 1, 2021.  

Berry is currently an assistant coach on Stammberger’s staff, focusing on recruitment and player development. He spent seven years with the men’s program, before joining the women’s squad for the 2020-2021 campaign.  

With the men’s team, the Tigers experienced an extraordinary run of success, winning five Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference titles and two U Sports medals, including a national silver medal last season. Berry’s duties included work as the team’s defensive coordinator.  

When asked what he hopes to bring to his new position from his time in the men’s program, Berry said, “From a competitive standpoint: winning.”  

Accountability and team relationships 

The women’s team’s last AUS title came in the 2000-2001 season, a statistic Berry hopes to change soon. But beyond the results, Berry hopes to establish a positive team culture, the importance of which he learned as an assistant under men’s head coach Rick Plato.  

During his time with the men’s program, Berry said the most important experiences centred around that culture.  

“I think the most important thing is team culture. The foundation of a team’s culture needs to be accountability on and off the court,” said Berry.  

That accountability, he said, begins at the top of the organization with him and is expected throughout the program. This philosophy is nothing new to him, having seen it in play during the men’s teams’ run to a slew of conference titles and U Sports medals.  

“You have to believe in each other, you have to trust, you have to work hard and you have to sacrifice. That starts with me as a coach, and my coaching staff and it has to continue down through my players,” Berry said.  

Also, Berry emphasized the importance of relationships with his athletes as an integral part of a team’s success.  

“You have to have great relationships with your players. I think building relationships with your players is a very important thing in coaching. I have found that at the end of the season it pays dividends,” he said. 

Back into game form 

This season, of course, presented unique challenges for the program. The lack of certainty was present since September 2020, when it was unclear whether or not there was going to be a season.  

“From an Xs and Os standpoint, we had no way to prepare for [what was to come]. The focus. . . was just working on skills, hoping that we’d be able to get some competition,” Berry said.  

As a current assistant coach focused on development, when asked if he was worried the lack of game experience would be an issue for the development of the team, Berry responded confidently.  

“Players are made in the off-season. When it comes to development, the off-season is going to be crucial,” said Berry. “I have to give a lot of respect to the players. Shout-out to them, who practiced their butts off for months not knowing if they’d have a season.” 

Thankfully, in February 2021, the team was able to participate in a number of controlled scrimmages versus Acadia, Saint Mary’s, King’s College and Mount Saint Vincent universities, the latter of which is Berry’s alma mater. These scrimmages have provided a welcome return to a competitive environment the team has spent so long preparing for.  

Berry hopes the team will see the return of the regular grind of a full competitive season sooner rather than later. Until then, he is focused on doing whatever he can to prepare the team.  

“How can I make the team better by adding players, or what can we do to make players better?” Berry asked, which he hopes to answer when he officially becomes interim head coach in April. “I’m trying to see how I can establish and build a strong team culture.” 

DSU raises student health plan fees

Lane Harrison
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DSU raises student health plan fees
Health Plan Office
The DSU annually reviews the student health plan with its insurer to determine if fee increases need to be made in the near future. (Photo by Lane Harrison)

The Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) has voted to slightly raise the cost of the DSU health and dental plan in an attempt to ensure students don’t receive an unmanageable fee increase in the near future, according to union President Maddie Stinson.  

The single student and family plan fee for domestic students will increase by $4.64 to $468.64. The single student fee for international students will increase by $12.74 to $740.74 and the family fee by $19.32 to $1,123.32. The fee increases will take effect in September 2021 for the next academic year. 

According to Stinson, the increases are being made because students are making more claims than the insurance provider allows. By adapting the health plan with small increases such as the ones recently voted through, the DSU hopes to avoid making the large increases necessary in the past. For example, in 2018 the DSU increased the cost of the domestic plan by $180.  

“We no longer want to be in a situation where we have to make $100 or $200 increases to this fee because that’s something that can’t be very easily absorbed by a student’s finances,” Stinson said in an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette. “But an increase of a few dollars every year, or every other year, offsets the increasing expenses of the plan.” 

Why the increases are necessary 

The increases will allow the DSU to continue providing subsidized healthcare to students who need it the most. But it will also ensure other union services aren’t at risk of having their funding affected at expense of the health plan, according to Isa Wright, DSU vice-president (operations). 

Without increases to the plan, any claims made that exceed what’s currently allowed by the insurance company must be covered by the DSU, Wright said.  

Any of these claims the DSU becomes responsible for are covered by the health plan reserves, Wright said. These reserves are a collection of funds created more than a decade ago when the DSU profited from the health plan. 

According to Wright, if the claims were to exceed the reserves or completely deplete them, the money would have to come out of the DSU’s operating budget.  

Due to the pandemic, and its effect on the physical and mental health of Dalhousie students, Wright is concerned the number of claims will only rise, therefore putting more stress on the reserve funds and more risk on the operating budget.  

“We’re preventing claims for individual students from being taken out of our operating budget, which is really paid into by all students and meant to serve a very different purpose from the health plan,” Wright said.  

As this is only a small increase to adjust for claims made over the past year of coverage, Wright said it is impossible to say whether a similar increase will be needed next year.  

Wright said the DSU will review the plan with its provider, the insurer StudentVIP, at the end of next year. This will provide the DSU with insight into how fees need to be changed and how the health plan can be adapted to better suit the claims being made within it.  

“Prompting that review each year is really the most responsible thing that we can be doing to ensure that not only is the plan fiscally sustainable, but also ensuring that it’s still relevant and helpful to students,” Wright said.  

Confusion at council surrounding motion 

When the motion to increase the cost of the student health plan was originally tabled at a DSU council meeting on Feb. 25, 2021, the motion failed to be voted through. It later succeeded on March 10 as an e-motion, a motion distributed via email that allowed councillors 48 hours to vote. 

Initially the motion failed due to a lack of context after Aparna Mohan, one of the union’s board of governors representatives, asked to see some information supporting the motion prior to making a vote, especially before increasing a fee for international students, she said at the meeting.  

This information was not immediately available as Wright, the executive member who could have provided the most context, was absent due to illness.  

The contextualizing information was provided to councillors through email after the meeting, said Stinson. The motion then passed unanimously, she said.  

After learning the increase was to prevent larger increases in the future, Mohan voted for the motion.  

“Ensuring that there aren’t any interruptions to international students and any students’ coverages is very important,” Mohan said in an interview with the Gazette, though she said she would have liked to see some discussion around who else could have covered the cost other than students.  

There was also confusion at the meeting as to why the increases had to be voted on now if they won’t be affecting students until September, a question raised at the meeting by Fatima Beydoun, the DSU’s other board of governors representative.  

According to Wright, the DSU council had to approve the increases this month because they are only one step in a series of approvals before the increases actually take effect.  

The increases will now be approved internally by Dal before being presented to the university’s board of governors for final approval, Wright said.  

Though more approval is necessary, Wright said the increase in price won’t change at all. The university simply needs to verify the DSU followed the proper procedure in determining the increases. 

Women working for change

Lane Harrison
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Women working for change

A group of Dalhousie University students got a chance to experience the future of Canadian politics at a virtual conference with federal party leaders earlier this month.  

Six Dal students were selected to attend the Daughters of the Vote conference from March 5 to 8, 2021. The  conference held once every two years is hosted by Equal Voice Canada, a multipartisan organization that strives to increase the involvement of women in Canadian politics at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.  

The conference selects 338 delegates from across the country to represent all federal ridings. Usually hosted in Ottawa, the weekend culminates in a mock House of Commons session attended by national media, federal party leaders and the prime minister. Each delegate who’s admitted to the conference is put in touch with their riding’s actual member of parliament (MP).  

Delegates chose three ridings they would be interested in representing on their application for the program. With the conference being virtual this year, there was also space for more than 338 delegates, resulting in there being some delegates-at-large who did not represent a riding.  

Katherine Meagher, Emily Stapleton, Caleigh Wong and Charlotte Moase were among the students from Dal selected to attend this year’s virtual Daughters of the Vote conference. (Photos contributed by Katherine Meagher, Emily Stapleton, Caleigh Wong and Charlotte Moase)

In attendance from Dal were students Caleigh Wong, Tatiana Portelli-Graham, Jenna Andrews, Charlotte Moase, Emily Stapleton, Katherine Meagher and teaching assistant Stacie Smith.  

The weekend aims to teach young women how they can make a difference in their communities through politics, an attempt to further Equal Voice’s ultimate goal of gender parity in politics.  

Daughters of the Vote 2021 built on this vision.  

“I never really considered running for a House of Commons seat before,” said Meagher, who studies international food business. “But it’s definitely something that’s kind of now in the back of my mind for later in the future.” 

An opportunity with Trudeau 

While most students apply to the conference because of their interest in politics and improving their community, Wong, an international development studies and civil engineering student, applied to the conference for a more specific reason.  

“My main reason, honestly, for wanting to do it was the fact that I knew that if you got accepted into this program, you would have a chance to make a statement in an audience with the prime minister, with all the federal party leaders and the national media as well, on something that you really feel needs to be brought up to that level of a platform,” Wong said. 

She was selected as one of 30 delegates to give a 60-second speech at the House of Commons session, which she used to shed light on systemic oppression within the Canadian Forces — an issue with renewed public interest as two of Canada’s former chief of the defence staff are being investigated for sexual misconduct. 

Wong is a queer woman of colour who serves as a reservist in the Canadian military. In 2020, she took time off from Dal to serve on a NATO mission in Latvia where she said she fully came to understand the racism, homophobia and misogyny embedded within the top ranks of Canada’s military, and the culture of its soldiers. 

“What I know is that every woman and racialized member I’ve met in this career has experienced discrimination serving this country,” she said in her speech at the House of Commons session, the full video of which is on YouTube. 

Usually, delegates get to make their speech in person with the prime minister present. But this year, due to COVID-19, the speeches were pre-recorded and broadcast during the virtual session.  

The opportunity to be in the same room as federal party leaders was seized by the last group of Daughters of the Vote delegates. In 2019, several members turned their backs to Trudeau as he spoke, protesting his handling of the SNC-Lavalin scandal of that year.  

Delegates are also normally granted a question and answer period with the prime minister. In 2019, delegates similarly questioned Trudeau about his decision to eject former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould and former Treasury Board president Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus.  

But this year, Trudeau chose to opt-out of a question period.  

“There was definitely some disappointment,” Wong said. Trudeau’s decision provided no opportunity for real discussion around the delegates’ statements toward him, Wong said.  

Building a community of future leaders 

“Learning to network with people from every region and demographic in Canada I think was what I was most looking forward to,” said Moase, a political science student. 

This came to fruition over the course of the weekend, Moase said. She said she learned the most from her Indigenous colleagues about their experiences in political settings and how they’d like to continue to be involved in Canadian politics.  

Portelli-Graham, who’s from Toronto, wanted to take the opportunity to learn about challenges affecting Canadians in other parts of the country. 

“I come from a large city. So, the issues I face are very different than someone who lives in rural Saskatchewan within a farming community,” said Portelli-Graham, who studies social work at Dal. 

Meagher, who’s from rural Saskatchewan, provided delegates with this perspective. In discussions with delegates, she raised the issue of the pandemic’s impact on the agricultural industry, which has been affecting her home riding of Cypress Hills-Grasslands, Sask. (the same riding she represented at the conference).  

“There are a lot of beef producers around where I live. They were experiencing large demand drops because of the food service industry essentially shutting down,” Meagher said. 

“So I just saw how that was impacting them, how they had to euthanize a lot of their animals and how hard that was for them,” she said.  

Because of Daughters of the Vote, Meagher was able to discuss these issues with her MP Jeremy Patzer. 

Even those who are still waiting to hear back from their MP have had the opportunity to meet with other members of parliament through the conference. Stapleton, who represented the riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, N.S. was most recently chatting with Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin. 

“A bunch of the Atlantic delegates, we have a Facebook group, and we got together and we had a little Zoom chat with [Atwin] last night, which is pretty neat,” said Stapleton, a student at Dal’s Schulich School of Law.  

Being part of the community of more than 300 young women eager to make change boosted morale in a time where it’s been hard to find, Portelli-Graham said. 

“When I kind of see what’s going on in the political realm, I get a little bit discouraged,” said Portelli-Graham. “[Daughters of the Vote] inspires me to go make a difference. It inspires me to not be held back by my fears, or the discouragement that I feel.”  

Dal engineering students win national competition

Lane Harrison
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Dal engineering students win national competition

Two Dalhousie University students took home the top prize at a national engineering competition earlier this month. Though they sometimes feel like they don’t belong at Dal, to them the win is a reminder: women belong in engineering.  

Annika Benson and Kayleigh Landers, who are both preparing to graduate from engineering at Dal this spring, won first place in the re-engineering category at the 2021 Canadian Engineering Competition hosted by the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students. The competition took place during the last weekend of February 2021. 

For the competition, Benson and Landers were given a week to redesign a university campus to be more accessible and eight hours to repurpose salmon cages so they could be used for a more sustainable method of aquafarming called multi-trophic aquaculture.  

After experiencing anxiety about her place in engineering during previous competitions, Benson said this win is the ultimate validation.  

“Something that I think has actually made this win even more meaningful is I’d gone from those moments where I genuinely questioned if I belonged in this field, to being like, ‘I won one of these competitions. I absolutely do,’” Benson said.  

Is Dal supportive of women? 

Annika Benson (left) and Kayleigh Landers want to see Dal do more for the women in its engineering program who continue to succeed in the department’s name. (Photo provided by Annika Benson)

Nearly 50 years after the department of engineering first opened, Norma Eddy became the first woman to receive an engineering degree from Dalhousie in 1956.  

Sixty-five years later, “there are so many females and non-binary individuals in engineering at Dalhousie who just inspired me so much,” said Benson. “Every single one of those people that I know, they’re all doing such incredible things.” 

Aside from Benson and Landers’s success at the national competition, engineering student Sierra Sparks was also chosen as Dal’s 92nd Rhodes Scholar in 2020.  

But there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure women feel welcome in the engineering department, Benson and Landers said.    

Some of that work is being done, but only thanks to the advocacy of students who still feel unwelcome on Sexton campus, Landers said.  

The most pervasive issue affecting women on Sexton campus is a lack of bathrooms for women on every floor of campus buildings, said Landers.  

“You can’t find a female washroom. It is impossible. But there are male washrooms beside the stairs on every floor in every single building,” Landers said. “It’s because [the buildings] are old and were designed when females weren’t students or they weren’t supposed to be students.” 

Sexton campus has 22 female washrooms, 27 male washrooms and 44 gender neutral washrooms according to Janet Bryson, Dalhousie’s associate director of media relations and issues management.  

“We had heard from students in 2019 that there weren’t enough female washrooms centrally located in main areas,” Bryson said in an email to the Dalhousie Gazette. “There were a number of washrooms that were changed to reflect enrolment trends in our STEM programs.” 

In 2019, the Gazette reported the added washrooms were in converted rooms, which students still considered inconveniently located. 

“Any of the newly constructed buildings on Sexton campus are 50/50 washroom designations or gender-neutral single use washrooms,” Bryson said.  

Because the engineering faculty is male-dominated –– Benson and Landers have had three female engineering professors between them in their entire academic careers –– it’s difficult for women in engineering to see themselves succeeding beyond Dalhousie, Benson said.  

“Hopefully, as females start entering this field, we’ll have more female professors who will be good role models for future students,” Landers said.  

Landers said she’s often reminded of the lack of women in her field by some of her male professors who will acknowledge her presence in their class by addressing the class as “lady and gentlemen.”  

For the competition, Benson and Landers were given a week to redesign a university campus for better accessibility. (Photo provided by Annika Benson)

Competition highlighted gaps in curriculum 

Taking part in competitions like these is valuable because they provide students with knowledge that is often left out of coursework, Landers said. Specifically, accessibility and sustainability minded design.  

“The way that we tackled it, because it hasn’t been covered in courses, was I just tried to go to the contacts that I had who I knew would know about [accessibility issues],” Benson said. “We reached out to a bunch of different people in the university and broader community, who kindly opened up to us about their experiences with the built environment,” she said.  

This provided insights into multiple things the pair had never considered. For Benson, one of these things was the way quadriplegic people interact with doors.  

“Yes, you have that button. But if you can’t reach out and push it, what does that look like?” she said.  

What they discovered was the best design is a physical post that acts as a large button people can push their wheelchairs into.  

For Landers, another important lesson was that hallways need to be wide enough for a wheelchair to complete a 360-degree turn. A six-meter-wide hallway became a central part of their design.  

Benson was also able to bring some of her own experience to the competition. She is neurodivergent –– a term that indicates variation in the brain affecting learning, sociability and other mental functions –– something she said usually isn’t considered when discussing accessible design.  

“For me, as someone with a learning disability, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go: ‘How could you make a classroom better for someone who doesn’t necessarily have a conventional learning style?’” Benson said.  

Some of their ideas included an electronic whiteboard attachment that automatically takes notes for students, Benson said.  

As the pair prepare to graduate, they’re glad to have spent so much of their time competing in these competitions. Through these contests, Benson said her friendship with Landers has grown far beyond the lab partners they started out as. 

Dalhousie poets: identity and location

Trisha Malik
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Dalhousie poets: identity and location

Canadian winter  

Art by Sara Pelaez on Blush.

The carpet of my one bedroom  

Squirms in its pixelated glory.  

It is dirty because the vacuum is broken  

And I am young.  

And the third or fourth best-ranking views in this city  

Are from buildings open to the public in the daytime hours.  

This is nice to know  

But we can’t smoke out here,   

Which will just have to do.  

Today’s winter is still and sunny  

Like an old painting.  

It’s worn round the edges.  

Later when the fairies break their wings in the sharp breeze  

It may snow just a little   

Especially around your house.  

And I’m beginning to realize  

That I don’t know how to sit around strangers  

Where to stick my fingers or tongue  

Whether to make hard or soft or a kind of lingering eye contact.  

Do they look at my skin first?  

Or the length of my hair?  

What do they think of  

Without meaning to?  

And what do you do  

When the rooms you look to escape to  

Are also frozen?  

Hotel golden   

We drive  

through this new world  

with skies that follow  

then spin in circles all around us and   

strangers we will only know   

through eyes.  

How lovely though  

to know   

we will be here for a while.  

Home is prettier from inside the dirty bus,  

like a drive through some gallery of art.   

I make mental notes of diners I must check out,  

parks I must walk through,  

write in.  

I will forget this tomorrow  

But right now, it is important.  

It baffles me how easy it is to leave this town  

Any town  

never here  

never here.  

You should go to school here.  

They paint like you do!  

You’d make easy friends,  

people who finally understood you.  

It’s small, uncomplicated.   

It would settle easy in your midnight drink.  

And the bus was dark then,  

when it made me think   

of the time we travelled and  

the back of your  

crystal earring pierced my neck,  

as you fell asleep  

and I left you lying there,  

on my too-small shoulder  

for a time  

weeping onto my own sleepy cheek  

(for just the sheer pain of it),  

not saying a word,  

because I liked you,  

a lot.  

So, when the physical pain of it  

would return in a few years   

at least I’d be prepared.  

And in this sleepy town, it’s impossible to get work done.  

All we do is think of our next meals  

and lie around on our stomachs  

in this golden,  

badly decorated hotel room.  

I think my friends and I are beautiful  

in a strange way  

I think we could suit a rainy sky,  

A train, slipping away  

A dirt road, unending.  

And I don’t miss you on  

this night.  

You are dangling from a thread  

and to be near you,  

I must dangle too.  

We are precariously over the edge now,  

comfortable always  

in the uncertainty of it all.  

And it’s pretty,   

I think, how  

we are home   

nowhere.  

Dalhousie poets is a rotating column in the Gazette’s Art & Lifestyle section featuring poetry by students on various subjects. Interested in submitting your verse? Email arts@dalgazette.com.  

One year of COVID-19

Mandy King
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One year of COVID-19

Morgane Evans: The week before 

It has officially been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Dalhousie to stop most in-person classes. (Photo by Lane Harrison)

Last March, when my friends and I went to the Risley Gala (the annual end-of-year event for Risley Hall residents), we didn’t know Dalhousie University would stop in-person classes days later. We didn’t know the next time we’d see each other we’d be smiling in relief that Nova Scotia had so few cases of COVID-19. 

 A week after getting  ready together that night, the world changed. My friend was wearing a short black dress, and I was in a teal floor-length dress I bought on sale at H&M when I was at home during February break. It’s strange to think I didn’t have to quarantine then.  

When we got to the Lord Nelson hotel, and ate and danced, we didn’t know we wouldn’t be able to go out for the rest of the year. We were so free then as we chatted with people who we barely knew without masks on and without social distancing. Now, the idea of a room full of 100 people makes me anxious.  

My friends and I didn’t know when we got our photos taken at the photo booth, we wouldn’t have any pictures with each other again until mid-September. I wish I could go back to that very moment and take as many pictures as I could to remember everything while I was in lockdown. 

If we did know, I think it would have been different. I probably would have worn another dress that fit me exactly right and would’ve had my makeup done somewhere instead of doing it myself. Maybe my friend and I would have brought our other friends as our dates so we could all be there together. It was truly our last week of freedom, and if we had known, we would have done everything we could to savour every second of it.  

I miss that night. 

Alex Affonso: Raising my (e)hand  

One year ago, I loved participating in class discussions.  

I remember how thrilling it was to devour page after page of course readings alone in my dorm room, coming up with thoughts to share in class. The readings themselves could be monotonous and somewhat tedious, but the ideas brewing in my mind lit a fire in my heart. I walked to class holding a Tim’s cup in my hand and countless comments in my head. Then, whenever I raised my hand — or simply considered doing it — my heart accelerated with excitement. There’s something magical about academic discussions, this coalition of beautiful brains. I was glad to be a part of it.  

Then the COVID-19 pandemic started. 

In the early days of online classes, it was terrifying to stare at the hand emoji on Zoom, hovering my cursor over it and biting my lip. It’s not that I didn’t have ideas brewing in my brain. I just lacked the fire in my heart. The comments were in my head, but I was unable to raise my e-hand. Whenever I considered doing it, my heart accelerated with an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. There’s something strange about online discussions, this disconnected connection of beautiful brains. I was afraid to be a part of it. 

But it’s gotten better. I do like participating in online class discussions now, even if they’ll never be the same as speaking in-person. 

Mandy King: New goals, new beginnings  

While COVID-19 vaccines have now been made, it will still be a while before life can return to some sense of normal. (Photo by HAKANGerman on Pixabay)

I cringe as another ad for Dalhousie University appears on my Facebook timeline. A blatant reminder of past failures. I first attended Dal in my early 20s, but left when I became pregnant with my son. Six years later, I keep telling myself, “I’ll finish one day.” But one day never comes.  

Despite the tinge of shame flushing my cheeks, I click the ad. What harm can it do to look? I attempt to enter my login information and on my second try it works. I’m in! A rush of familiarity fills my screen. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced courses online. This will impact many students negatively, but for me, it means I could potentially attend the university full-time despite having two children at home. Hope fills my chest as I stare at the blinking cursor waiting for me to type my letter for readmission.  

Through Zoom meetings, Collaborate Ultra chats, Instagram study groups and more digitized reading than I’ve ever taken on, I have made it to the end of a school year.  

The pandemic has created many obstacles, fueled fear and restructured the world we live in. Despite all the bad, I can’t help but focus on this one good point. I am here, and I will reach my goal if I keep trying.  

Looking for new heroes

Alex Affonso
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Looking for new heroes

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is arguably one of the most popular franchises in contemporary western popular cinema.  

It currently has 23 movies in circulation including Avengers: Endgame, “the top global box-office performer not only of 2019, but the 21st century,” according to writer Tom Brueggemann at IndieWire. Considering the influence these movies have on countless fans around the world, it is important to remember the famous warning of Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben: “With great powers come great responsibility.”  

The power of protagonists 

Marvel continues to add to the thousands of comic books published since its inception in 1939, but when will audiences see more racial and gender minorities featured in its films and stories? (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)

Michael Hauge, in his book Writing Screenplays That Sell, defines the hero as the “character. . . who is the central focus of the story, who is on screen most of the time, and with whom the audience most closely identifies.” This last definition becomes an issue when most main characters in the MCU are cisgender, heterosexual, white men.  

In an email to the Dalhousie Gazette, Shannon Brownlee, associate director of cinema and media studies at Dalhousie University, says “it needs to be normal for sympathetic protagonists not to look like and be perceived as only one kind of person.” 

“I feel that it’s important to see diversity on screen for two main reasons,” Brownlee says. “First, so that individuals can see identities they share being celebrated and admired; and second, so that individuals can see identities they don’t share being celebrated and admired.” 

Aaron Seutter, a 26-year-old Torontonian who identifies as a queer man and drag queen, once self-identified as straight, cisgender and Christian. He has been a Marvel fan his whole life. In an email to the Gazette, he says, “being able to see somebody like yourself doing amazing things and have something to aspire to as a kid is so extremely important.”  

Having more racially and gender diverse protagonists would have clear social and cultural benefits, but also financial ones.  

In an email to the Gazette Tom Ue, who teaches world literature, intellectual history and cultural studies at Dalhousie, refers to a study by consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Their report looked at the lack of Black representation on-screen and found the film industry faces huge financial losses as a result of this absence of racial and gender diversity. 

“Hollywood is missing out on potential annual revenue valued at US$10 billion because it has inadequately addressed systemic racial inequities,” Ue says. “The broader, cultural implications are that superhero films are failing to provide audiences with identifiable role models and with different kinds of stories.” 

MCU phases 

According to writers Cameron McEwan and Chris Longridge in their article for Digital Spy, the MCU is “divided into distinct sections that have overarching storylines,” known as phases.  

In phase one, from 2008 to 2012, Marvel protagonists were incredibly homogeneous. All five films featured a solo white male protagonist/hero. The Avengers, a much anticipated and highly popular movie at the time, was the first ambitious crossover, and presented audiences with a group of five white men: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and Hawkeye, and one white woman, Black Widow.  

Then phase two came along, from 2013 to 2015, and there was a slight improvement. Zoe Saldana, a biracial Black and Latina actress,  was cast as a lead in Guardians of the Galaxy — but she plays a green-skinned alien. Along with her, two other white male protagonists were added to the universe: Star-Lord and Ant-Man. Like in the first phase, racial and gender minorities were still largely restricted to secondary roles.  

It was only in phase three, from 2016 to 2019, we started seeing women and People of Colour (POC) leading their own solo movies, but there were only two: Black Panther and Captain Marvel. However, as if to balance it out, two white male protagonists were also added: Doctor Strange and Spider-Man.  

Phase four started in 2020 and is off to a good start with two highly anticipated TV shows: WandaVision (starring Elizabeth Olsen) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (starring Anthony Mackie). There’s also Black Widow coming out in May 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in July 2021, Captain Marvel 2 in November 2022, plus Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther II next year – all of which feature a non-white or female protagonist.  

Is it enough?  

Casting more women and  POC as protagonists is an important step towards a more diverse MCU and popular cinema in general. But as Seutter says, they’re baby steps. 

“I think that they are doing it from a marketing and popularity perspective,” Seutter argues. “However, that’s not a bad thing. If it’s popular to show diversity and then they show diversity, I still call it a win.” 

But Ue says, “Inclusiveness isn’t just about including diverse characters. It’s about promoting cultures of empathy and equity. Recognizing the inadequacies of pop culture is an important first step, but there’s so much more work to be done.” 

Even though there are more women and POC in primary roles, there is still a lack of LGBTQ+ protagonists in the MCU. As Seutter points out, “In the lore, these characters exist. They don’t even need to change much or sometimes even anything to make it a part of them.”  

So why is there still no LGBTQ+ superhero in a major role?  

“Systems reproduce themselves,” Brownlee says, “unless we actively and consciously intervene in them.”  

Next steps 

Commenting on the importance of having a variety of people in positions of power, Brownlee offers a few examples of groups trying to find ways to do this. 

 “The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will require best picture nominees to have some diversity in front of and/or behind the camera starting in 2024; in Canada, Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board have already put in place requirements for gender parity in key roles,” Brownlee says. 

Measures are being taken, but they need to be done respectfully. As Seutter says, race, gender and sexual identities need to be “worked into and treated as part of the character just being who they are. If they put it front and centre, it will come across as pandering.” 

One can only hope the MCU will continue to improve its representation of minorities, and that they’ll do it in respectful ways. But will it be enough?  

“The MCU is a large, commercial, culturally imperialist machine that won’t start a revolution,” Brownlee says, “but it might make people just a little more receptive to truly diverse ways of thinking, being in, and seeing the world.”  

“There has been considerable discussion about how we can build the post-COVID-19 world,” Ue says. “Rather than rebuild the one that we had, with all of its racial and economic inequalities, why not imagine and create better ones?” 

Holding onto the small things

Elizabeth Foster
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Holding onto the small things
From yoga to coding, there are many habits and hobbies students have picked up during the pandemic. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)

It’s strange to think Nova Scotians have already spent a whole year under COVID-19 restrictions. Throughout this past year, we’ve seen a lot of trends come and go.  

From completing jigsaw puzzles to baking bread, there were many new habits people tried out at the beginning of the pandemic. But what habits did people adopt for good? 

Working out  

Home workouts became increasingly popular as gyms started closing down because of COVID-19 regulations. At first, people seemed motivated to work on their body goals and come out of quarantine as a better version of themselves. However, as the months drag on, it’s hard for many to maintain the excitement. 

Abigail Disley, a third-year biology student at Dalhousie University, says she still tries to “exercise regularly or at least get outside for a walk every day.” Disley says exercising helps her with motivation, while giving her a break from work.  

“[I’m] taking a lot less steps in a day than when on campus, so [exercise] allows to get some more steps in,” she says.  

Similarly, Murtaza Lookmanji, a second-year economics major at Dal, says during quarantine he started with home workouts and moved to the gym as places started to open back up. He says exercise has “kept [him] energetic and motivated during these challenging times.” 

Quality time with yourself  

This past year may have been the first time ever, or at least a long time since, some people have lived by themselves. While being alone and feeling lonely are different things, the line between the two might feel extremely thin.  

Denisha Bracey, a second-year Dal student double majoring in cinema and media studies, and theatre, says she “picked up a few new hobbies, such as playing an instrument and cooking, to keep [herself] occupied during periods of isolation.”  

Lookmanji says he “learned multiple new skills [such] as coding and designing” to keep himself busy.  

“Listening to music allowed me to have a break from studying and relax a bit,” Disley says. Similarly, Lookmanji mentions reading, specifically self-development books, as a way of creating a better mindset.  

“It is hard to go through these times without a positive mindset,” he says, adding he has “worked on having a very strong and positive mindset.”  

Lookmanji also points out the importance of meditation in his life. He says meditation has helped him “to focus on the present, reducing the negative emotions, increasing creativity, patience and tolerance.”  

Changing scenery  

It’s difficult to study, sleep, eat and take a break all in the same space. A 2011 study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found brief diversions from a task can increase focus. So, a change of scenery from your cramped bedroom could make a huge difference in increasing productivity. This practice of changing study spaces seems to be popular among students in online classes.  

Bracey says she has “gone out to study at cafes or together with friends to have a change of scenery and get away from [her] desk.”  

Disley says she “tries to study somewhere outside of [her] apartment every once in a while.” It seems change from time to time can make your routine more sustainable in the long run.  

Maintaining social life 

Social interaction has taken many different shapes and forms throughout this past year. Many have dealt with ups and downs in social relationships, from seeing friends move oceans away to falling out of touch with people, but also finding our way to new friends.  

Disley says one way she’s been making time to maintain social interaction is “having a longer break to eat lunch and supper with her roommates.” 

Amidst a global pandemic, keeping friendships might be one of the most important habits to maintain. 

Dal alumna publishes horror story collection

Mandy King
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Dal alumna publishes horror story collection

Lauren Messervey, a Dalhousie University alumna, has found success in the horror genre. In an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette, she talks about the writing process, self-publishing and her upcoming projects.  

Dalhousie alumna with a story 

Dalhousie alumna Lauren Messervey published her book “Crestfallen” in 2018.

Messervey graduated from Dal with a bachelor of arts in theatre with a focus on acting. While her passion for the stage propelled her into the acting profession, she made the move to writing at the age of 25. 

“Looking back, writing was the first thing that I actually liked doing as a child. It was my favourite thing in school,” she explains. “And then for some reason I stopped and focused more on acting.” 

At 27, Messervey moved to Toronto. There, she began to pursue writing as a profession, and her debut novel Crestfallen was born.  

Messervey self-published Crestfallen on Amazon. It is a compilation of short stories forming one cohesive tale about an old, dilapidated apartment complex called Crestfallen Estates.  

Chilling vibes 

The initial idea for the book came from personal experiences while living in Halifax. 

“I lived in this small apartment complex in Clayton Park, and there was a guy who came home every night at 3 a.m.,” Messervey says. “He’d always whistle, and I would always hear the click of his heels. For some reason, it really freaked me out.” 

The whistling stranger inspired one of the characters in the book and encouraged Messervey to find other stories to add to the project. 

“I started thinking about how weird apartment complexes are, the kind of people who reside there and the stories hidden there.” 

Crestfallen offers an edgy take on modern horror, using blunt language and imagery to draw readers into the dark world Messervey has woven. 

The self-publishing game 

Messervey suggests the self-publishing avenue, while a positive experience for some, isn’t one she would try again. She has chosen a more traditional publishing route for her next project.  

“Because of the nature of Amazon, and self-publishing platforms, it can be difficult to build a following,” she says. “I have a lot of respect for people who can go forward and do that. I don’t think it’s for me.” 

In 2022, the next horror chapter in Messervey’s life will take form with a U.S.-based  independent publishing company called Clash Books.  

“It’s a horror novella that examines rape culture, is what I’ll divulge for now. But there’s a big twist on that as well.” 

Messervey has found another way to mix her love of acting with writing by creating a script. 

“I recently wrote a slasher script that’s due to go to cameras sometime later this year, possibly early next year. It’s a hybrid of two genres that you didn’t know would work so well together.” 

Messervey explains the script, a horror and romance mashup, is being filmed rather than used as a stage production. 

Writing in the pandemic 

Living in Toronto, Messervey’s writing process has taken a hit due to the restrictions of COVID-19. Her husband, actor Mark Gibson, and herself have been isolating since November 2020 to avoid the virus.  

On the topic of writing during COVID-19, she says, “there’s this whole misconception that writers write better when they’re depressed. I do not subscribe to that. I actually write better when I’m in a sort of a relieved mental state.” 

Despite feeling the effects of the pandemic on her creativity, Messervey is working on honing her writing process.  

“I’m trying to develop what I guess would be called a more normal process,” she explains. “In the past, I would get an idea, write notes and then see where it takes me. Now, I’d like to do more character mapping. Write all the traits, how they relate to other people, figure out their voices, stuff like that.” 

Messervey also says music encourages a more creative space amongst the chaos of thoughts and outer influences.  

“With Crestfallen, I was listening to a lot of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and other sort of creepy music with a beatnik atmosphere. With a project that I’m writing right now, I’m listening to classical music. If a story has a certain atmosphere, I’ll try to find music and integrate that into how I write.” 

Advice for up-and-comers 

Along with her novel, novella and script projects, Messervey works as an online writer producing content for platforms like the recently archived Huffington Post.  

On writing, she offers some advice to Dal students who might be contemplating the same profession:  

“I think there’s two things that I would really stress for writers. The most important work you do is just writing. If you write in a journal every day, you’re doing the work. If you’re reading and absorbing other people’s work, you’re doing the work,” she says. “The second is never believe your own press. Because the moment you start believing you’re the worst or best writer in the world, you completely eliminate your ability to grow.” 

In defence of young adult literature

Chase Fitzgerald
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In defence of young adult literature

Despite many critical reviews, books in the Twilight series have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. (Photo by Geoffrey Howard)

While there’s no rule banning adults from reading it, young adult literature (YA lit) is a unique genre for teenagers — young people growing up and discovering the complexities of the world. The genre has often come under criticism for what some claim is poor writing quality and plot structures.  

But YA lit should not be measured on the same scale as every other adult genre. We would never compare Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat with George Martin’s Game of Thrones just because both contain fantastical elements. There are many great qualities to YA lit. 

For young people 

Like it or not, millions of teenagers and adults today were and are fostered by YA lit.  

In a 2018 Newsweek article, a young protest organizer named Anna Tinneny argues part of the reason gen Z has been vital to several mass protest movements (such as March For Our Lives, the movement supporting gun control) is because of the inspiration we received from rebellious protagonists in YA books like Divergent and The Hunger Games. Our world is burning and these YA books have inadvertently become our guidebooks.  

When you are a vulnerable teenager and people are picking apart your insecurities, YA books are there to promise you everything’s going to be OK. YA lit taught us no matter how different we feel, there is always a place for us in the world. This genre gives us friends and a sense of belonging when the real world fails us. These books are maps to growing up, shaping who we become. When we’re young and looking for magic to save the world, YA lit shows us we had the magic within us all along.  

Twilight and self-discovery 

Even Twilight (the series that has been trashed for its poor writing, twisted romance and unredeemable characters) has value.  

When I first read Twilight, the fictional town of Forks — filled with rain, fog and the leeching cold — made me appreciate the sunny days, even if they were spread apart and few. Stephenie Meyer writes in the book, “Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.” Through reading Twilight, I learned I would never appreciate the good if I did not first endure the bad.  

Twilight was also my first introduction to high school and all the messy in-betweens awaiting me. It showed me anyone could stand up and fight for themselves, even the protagonist Bella who did not possess a single lick of magic in her veins. In the cheesiest way possible, Twilight taught me what it is to love and be loved. Because if Bella — clumsy, quiet, human Bella — could find love, then I could too. 

 “Twilight taught me what it is to love and be loved.” 

YA books are meant to be consumed whole like bitter medicine. They are not five-course meals at Michelin-star restaurants in Paris. At the end of the day, these books are going to make you feel better somehow and that is all that matters. The purpose of YA lit is to make our heads spin. It is not about the magic, the vampires, the werewolves, the pirates or the dystopian. It is about learning how to face the unknown, terrible and evil, and to stand up for ourselves and each other.  

There is bound to be something in YA books that will stick with you. For me, it was about realizing the world might end a few thousand times, but if you decide to pick yourself back up again, you might just be stronger for it.  

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The Dalhousie Gazette is the main student publication at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The paper first began publishing in 1868, making it the oldest continually operating student newspaper in North America followed by The Harvard Crimson and The Columbia Daily Spectator

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