In honor of Maureen Owino’s (PhD Candidate in Environmental Studies) legacy of being an advocate for immigrants, refugees, women, and youth with HIV/AIDS in Toronto, an award was established by Community Alliance for Accessible Treatment (CAAT): The Maureen Owino TrailblazHER Award.

We introduced our new co-op program, with students securing successful placements with top employers such as 407 ETR and Hydro One. This summer, we had 30 students completing the  Field Placement. We also introduced two internships with Riipen, our new partner.

We recognized our wonderful winners of this year’s Dean’s awards: Sheila Colla for Research Excellence, Andil Gosine for Teaching Excellence, Teresa Abbruzzese for University Service, Lisa Myers for University Service​, and Syyed Hosein for Staff Excellence.

Five of our faculty and former students were awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Congratulations to Adjunct Professor Bruce Campbell, MES Alum Jennifer Corriero, MES Alum James Kamstra, MES Alum Pamela Schwartzberg, and the late Associate Professor Sheila Colla.

Professor Ilan Kapoor has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), joining the Academy of Social Sciences as part of its class of 2025.

Kelly LaRocca, chief of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, was recognized with an honorary doctorate this past June. 

Our undergraduate Global Geography (BA) program was ranked #2 in Ontario, #4 in Canada, and among the Top 100 to 150 worldwide by QS Rankings.

Joshua Thienpont and Adeyemi Olusola received a Canada Foundation for Innovation-John Evans Leaders Fund (CFI-JELF) grant for their project Landscapes in Transition: Environmental Sensitivities Due to Climate Change. 

Jocelyn Cadieux (MES ’20) and Lauren Castelino (BA ’22, MES ’24) were featured in York’s Top 30 under 30 YU Alumni this year.

Zeina Ismail (MES ’13) and Lauren Castelino (BA ’22, MES ’24) were among this year’s winners of the Women Executive Network’s (WXN) Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards.

Emily Ghaemmaghami (Environmental Arts & Justice Student), Mereille James (Environmental Science Student), Kira Jordun (Global Geography Student), and Colin Maitland (Cities, Regions, Planning, Student) are this year’s winners of the Environmental and Urban Change Undergraduate Research Award (EUCURA).

We partnered with the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) to host national leadership programming that brought youth and educators across Canada to York’s Keele Campus for our first annual “Youth Leadership Academy and Teachers’ Leadership Institute.”

Our faculty was awarded many research awards this year. Including: the Distinguished Achievement Award in Political Economy awarded to Raju Das, the Ontario Nature’s Education Award awarded to Sheila Colla, the Clark Art Institute Beinecke Fellowship awarded to Andil Gosine, the Distinguished University Professor (YU) awarded to Roger Keil, and the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission in Nigeria awarded to Anna Zalik.

Many of our faculty were proud receivers of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants this year. Congratulations to the recipients: Jennifer Hyndman, Carlota McAllister, ️Joseph Mensah, Patricia Wood, Muna Udbi-Ali, Mahtot Gebresselassie, and Dayna Scott!

Laurence Butet-Roch (Environmental Studies PhD ’24) was awarded this year’s Governor General’s Gold Medal which recognizes outstanding scholastic achievement of Graduate Students in Canada. 

First launched in 1994, Eco Arts and Media Festival is an annual week-long series of events. This year it ran March 17 to 28 with the theme of “Fugitive Ecologies.”

Professor Andil Gosine’s work has received worldwide attention after his planned exhibition “Nature’s Wild with Andil Gosine”, at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, was suddenly cancelled as a consequence of executive orders from the Trump administration. Among them was an order to terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, positions, grants and contracts and to repeal prior executive orders that ensured equal opportunity in the workplace. These orders had an immediate effect on the art scene, cancelling art shows that included DEI themes, including exhibitions of African American artists and LGBTQ+ people of colour. 

This April we held our Green Career Fair 2025 – Building the Workforce for a Sustainable Tomorrow with the Office of Sustainability at York University. Students were able to get feedback from a resume and cover letter clinic, get a free LinkedIn headshot, attend an EcoCanada presentation, and network with 20+ organizations.

Professors Roger Keil and Linda Peake, two long term forces behind CITY’s vision and growth, and beyond, retired this year! They bring almost 30 years of institution-building, engaged scholarship, and mentorship for students and colleagues alike. ​ ​

Professor Keil is internationally recognized for his work on urban political ecology, cities and infectious diseases and global suburbanization while Professor Peake has advanced feminist and decolonial approaches to urban theory, foregrounding the everyday experiences of women and reshaping how we think about urban knowledge production. ​ ​

To honour this legacy, the CITY Institute launched two named endowment funds: The Roger Keil Endowment Fund for Urban Political Ecology and The Linda Peake Endowment Fund for Feminist Urban Research. These funds will provide ongoing support to graduate students and emerging scholars working in the critical traditions that Roger and Linda have so powerfully advanced.