McGill expert alert: Holiday sources

We suggest the following sources for your holiday stories:

Consumer/Shopping

Sema Barlas
Professor, Desautels Faculty of Management
Expertise: Marketing and the psychology of shopping: What influences consumer behaviour? The impact of Internet shopping.
514-398-3602
sema.barlas [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

The tradition of gift giving

Donald M. Taylor
Professor, Department of Psychology
Expertise: Social, personality.
514-398-6104
donald.taylor [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Conrad Graham
Curator, Visual Arts Collection, McCord Museum of Canadian History
Expertise: History of gift giving, historic gifts.
514-398-7100 ext. 238
conrad.graham [at] mccord.mcgill.ca (Email)

'Overgifting'/Appropriate gifts for the holidays

Jeffrey Derevensky
Professor, Faculty of Education, Co-Director, International Center for Youth Gambling Problems & High Risk Behavior
514-398-4249
jeffrey.derevensky [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Donating to charity rewards the brain

Dr. Alain Dagher
Neurologist, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Professor, McGill University
Expertise: The function of dopamine.
Contact via Sandra McPherson, Communications Officer, MNI
514-398-1902
sandra.mcpherson [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Holiday family stress

Dr. Michael Spevack
Director, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex
Expertise: Coping with family interaction — visiting relatives, gatherings, divorce/visitation — when pre-existing issues may be exacerbated by stress, social anxiety.
514-485-7772 ext. 811

Grieving during the holidays

Estelle Hopmeyer
Director, McGill Centre for Loss and Bereavement
Expertise: How to deal with the loss of a loved one despite constant reminders of holidays past.
514-398-7067
estelle.hopmeyer [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Holiday depression/Suicide rates

Dr. Johanne Renaud
McGill Group for Suicide Studies at the Douglas Hospital
Expertise: The phenomenon of "holiday blues" brought on by stress, fatigue, unrealistic expectations, commercialization and financial concerns.
514-761-6131 ext. 3301

Holiday weight gain

Laurette Dubé
Professor, Desautels Faculty of Management
Expertise: Internationally respected professor in consumer and lifestyle psychology and marketing, food and health specialist, and founding chair and scientific director of the McGill University Integrative Health Challenge Think Tank. The role of comfort foods in alleviating negative emotions; which ones men choose, which ones women choose and why.
514-398-4026
laurette.dube [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Baerbel Agnes Knaeuper
Professor, Department of Psychology
Expertise: How individuals make food-related judgments, compensatory behaviour, whether post-holiday crash diets work.
Recent study: "Efficacy of Self-Dieting Rules"
baerbel.knaeuper [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Food safety

Judy Campbell Gordon
Dietician/Food Lab Coordinator, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition
Expertise: How to prepare food safely, contamination risks.
514-398-7974
judy.campbell-gordon [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Healthy food choices during the holidays

Louise Thibault
Professor, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition
Expertise: Smart food choices, avoiding winter weight gain.
514-398-7848
louise.thibault [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Food chemistry

Ariel Fenster
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Expertise: The chemistry behind alcoholic hangovers and "turkey hangovers," the effect of eating chocolate and mood.
514-398-2618
ariel.fenster [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Spirituality

Ellen Aitken
Professor, Faculty of Religious Studies
Expertise: The spiritual meaning of the holiday season beneath the commercialism.
514-398-8367
ellen.aitken [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Christianity and the Christmas season

Patricia Kirkpatrick
Professor, Faculty of Religious Studies
Expertise: Biblical historiography.
514-398-7449
patricia.kirkpatrick [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

New releases by and about McGill professors

The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider's View by William Tetley
McGill-Queen's University Press (released December 2006)

Red Travellers: Jeanne Corbin and Her Comrades by Andrée Lévesque
McGill-Queen's University Press (released December 2006)

Rethinking Social Evolution: The Perspective from Middle-Range Societies by Jérôme Rousseau
McGill-Queen's University Press (released November 2006)

Satanic Purses: Money, Myth, and Misinformation in the War on Terror by R.T. Naylor
McGill-Queen's University Press (released September 2006)