The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change brings together geographers, physical scientists, social scientists, humanities researchers and artists whose innovative research seeks to advance sustainability and social justice. Using field-based science, policy analysis, critical social theory, planning skills, geomatics, and cultural and arts-based approaches, our researchers drive action to address the world’s environmental and urban challenges.
By the Numbers
54
Faculty researchers
76
Research projects in 2020
33
Countries engaged in EUC research
$10M
In Research funding
Research Spotlights
University of Iceland hosts International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab Biennial Symposium
by Peri Dworatzek, IEFLL Partnership Coordinator and PhD Student at York University Left to right, back row: Anne Louise Van Berkum², Peter Victor¹, Bumika Srikanthalingam¹, Petra Dimitrova Toneva², Jade², Matthew Don Reimer Dyck²; front row: Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir², Andrew Reeves¹, Eric
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Using iPhone LiDAR scans for mixed forest mensuration
Tarmo Remmel by Tarmo Remmel A critical component of compiling forest stand inventories requires the determination of tree dimensions (height, diameter, volume) of single trees (both standing or fallen, alive or dead) along with their geographic locations, species, and other
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Building liveable futures in camps: Everyday placemaking practices of internally displaced persons in the Southern Philippines
Romeo Joe Quintero When does forced internal displacement end? And when does a structure become a home? These are some of the questions that Romeo Joe L. Quintero explores in this PhD dissertation, concerning the lives of internally displaced persons
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EUC Research Update
EUC Research Update
Welcome to the September/October 2025 edition of the EUC Research Update – bringing you highlights from research activities at York’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change.
Research Accolades
It is with deep sorrow that we are sharing the sad news about the passing of Dr. Sheila Colla. A Professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, Dr. Colla was a pioneering conservation scientist and educator whose work bridged the gaps between pollinator health, urban ecosystems, and social justice. As one of the first scientists to quantitatively document the decline of a wild bee species, she played a pivotal role in the successful campaign to have the rusty-patched bumblebee listed as endangered in both Canada and the U.S. Her scientific expertise has been crucial in shaping pollinator advocacy, inspiring several campaigns that engage both citizens and policymakers alike. Dr. Colla co-founded BumbleBeeWatch.org, a citizen science initiative that has collected over 172,000 photo records of bumblebees across North America. Her efforts have not only transformed public understanding but have also earned her numerous accolades, including the Ontario Nature Education Award, the York University President’s Research Impact Award, the Entomological Society of Canada’s C. Gordon Hewitt Award, the American Library Association’s Outstanding Reference Source Award, and most recently the NSERC Prize for Science Promotion and the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Dr. Colla was the York Research Chair Tier II in Interdisciplinary Conservation Science 2020-2025. Dr. Colla was also a trusted voice in science communication, speaking on platforms such as CBC, Reuters, CNN, The Washington Post, and CTV National to reach millions of people. Her written work—including opinion pieces, articles, and books like The Bumblebees of North America: An Identification Guide and A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee—has made pollinator conservation more relatable and actionable for Canadians, offering practical ways for people to support native pollinators right from their backyards. Throughout her career, Dr. Colla exemplified leadership in both science and advocacy, especially as a woman of colour in STEM. A role model for aspiring scientists and active contributor to initiatives that promote diversity and equity in the field, Dr. Colla was dedicated to her outreach efforts, mentoring young ecologists and citizen scientists, and inspiring others to take part in the conservation movement.
Muna Udbi Ali and Mahtot Gebresselassie are recipients of SSHRC Insight Development Grants that enable researchers to develop new research questions as well as experiment on new theoretical approaches and methods.
Ali’s project on “Bridging gaps, building futures: Exploring the impact of Black faculty cluster hires in Canadian universities” aims to offer solutions to support the recruitment and retention of Black faculty and will offer a model for what future cluster hiring might look like for other equity-deserving groups in universities and other public institutions.
Gebresselassie’s project on “Toward an understanding of intersectional factors affecting disabled persons’ travel via Uber and Lyft across urban and suburban contexts in the Greater Toronto Area” aims to investigate issues of disability access and inclusion in ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada leveraging the experience gained from leading a nationwide study in the United States about wheelchair users, Uber and Lyft services.
Jennifer Hyndman, Carlota McAllister, Joseph Mensah and Patricia Wood are recipients of SSHRC Insight Grants that build knowledge and understanding about people, societies and the world from disciplinary, interdisciplinary and/or cross-sector perspectives leading to intellectual, cultural, social and economic influence, benefit and impact.
Hyndman’s project on “Refugee dreams, small town realities: Interrogating the ruralization of refugee resettlement to smaller centres in Canada” aims to generate more comprehensive theory and evidence base for immigration and refugee resettlement policy that is accountable to government goals, available support services and infrastructure for the refugee newcomers, and the aspirations, motivations and plans of the newcomers themselves.
McAllister’s project on “A Riparian Mode of Politics: Environmental Struggles and Watery Sovereignties in Post-Uprising Chile” will examine how rivers become allies in movements against the dispossession of Indigenous, peasant, and poor urban communities. Examining how activists invoke and perform the slogan that “water is life” in their defense of rivers, it seeks to discern the challenge that a riparian mode of politics presents to the state and the state’s capacity to secure a future for life itself in the context of climate change.
Mensah’s project on “Gender dimensions of transnational ageing among Black African immigrants in Canada: Exploring the geographies of identity and belonging” will explore how ageing and immigration intersect to produce gendered situations of identification and belonging among Black Africans in Canada, drawing on the experiences of Ghanaians and Somalis in Toronto and Edmonton. It will offer policy suggestions to support the social embeddedness of these migrants to enhance their sense of identity, belonging, and wellbeing.
Wood’s project on “Modalities of Mobility: Infrastructural Citizenship and Urban Rail Transportation in Canada, Spain, and India” aims to understand rail transportation as a public asset, as urban public space, and as an exercise of democratic governance. The project will address a gap in policy and scholarship with an examination of modes of governance, both formal and informal, through the lens of urban citizenship and from the perspective of those most in need of a just transition.
Leora Gansworth, PhD Geography graduate student, has been awarded the Starkey-Robinson Award for Graduate Research on Canada. The award gives recognition to high quality graduate research that furthers understanding of the geography of Canada. As per citation, “Leora’s dissertation project, ‘Anguilla rostrata, our teacher: Addressing Anishnabe epistemicide through eels,’ was an ambitious and important project in its content and its methodology. Her research includes gathering and synthesizing knowledge from different Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in multiple sites. She grounds this work in Indigenous law, especially Anishnaabe law, and in Indigenous cosmologies and epistemologies that include eels as knowing subjects and as teachers. Drawing on scholarship in science, social sciences, and the humanities, her work brings a more fundamental shift in political ecology and our understandings of law, not just through the incorporation of more Indigenous knowledge, but in the ways in which she contemplates how Indigenous and non-Indigenous modes of knowing might engage each other.”
Romeo Joe Quintero, PhD student in Human Geography, has been awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for his research on “Building Liveable Futures in Camps: Everyday Placemaking Practices of Internally Displaced Women in the Southern Philippines.” The project examines the experiences of those living in resettlement and transitory sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the areas of the southern Philippines affected by armed conflicts. He will undertake ethnographic research to understand how IDPs construct their livelihoods, homes and sense of belonging through collective action. Quintero is a research associate at the Centre for Refugee Studies and York Centre for Asian Research as well as research fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.
EUC Research & the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
EUC Research for Sustainable Development
The UN SDGs provide a framework for urgent action in seventeen areas that are critical to ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet. York University has embedded a commitment to the SDGs into its academic planning, and EUC is at the forefront of research on many of the SDGs.
