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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, ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û
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, ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û 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
ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û 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 ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û 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 ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û professors

The October Crisis, 1970: An Insider's View by William Tetley
ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û-Queen's University Press (released December 2006)

Red Travellers: Jeanne Corbin and Her Comrades by Andrée Lévesque
ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û-Queen's University Press (released December 2006)

Rethinking Social Evolution: The Perspective from Middle-Range Societies by Jérôme Rousseau
ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û-Queen's University Press (released November 2006)

Satanic Purses: Money, Myth, and Misinformation in the War on Terror by R.T. Naylor
ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û-Queen's University Press (released September 2006)