EUC Research Update – April/May 2025

Accolades, Awards and Acknowledgements

Bruce Campbell (EUC Adjunct Professor), Sheila Colla (EUC Associate Professor), Jennifer Corriero (MES Alumna) and James Kamstra (MES Alumnus) were honoured the prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medal 2025.

Recipients of the King Charles III medal are recognized for their meaningful impact across various sectors, including education, research, public policy and social advocacy. The medal particularly honours individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in their communities, long-standing dedication to Canada’s well-being and efforts that foster positive change both nationally and beyond.

In April, York University recognized the following EUC faculty for their outstanding contributions to research in 2024.

Sheila Colla for winning Ontario Nature’s Education Award for helping people understand the natural world.

Raju Das for winning the Distinguished Achievement Award in Political Economy for the Twenty-First Century from the World Association for Political Economy for his book Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations.

Andil Gosine for his Clark Art Institute Beinecke Fellowship; Roger Keil for being bestowed the title of Distinguished Research Professor; and Anna Zalik for her appointment to the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission in Nigeria and delivering a landmark report to the state government.

At the Faculty End of Year Celebration in May , EUC Dean Alice Hovorka acknowledged the many academic and scholarly contributions of the EUC faculty, staff and students — from the Dean’s Changemakers to peer mentors, student clubs, governance student representatives, as well work-study students.

Undergraduate and graduate students were also recognized for receiving various awards and scholarships from EUC’s undergraduate student awards/NSERC USRA, Alectra, Canon Canada, Canadian Association of Geographers, Dian Marino, Enbridge, Harry Victor, John Warkentin to EUC PhD Dissertation Awards, Paul Simpson, Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship, Unilever, Vanier, among others.

Sheila Colla received the Dean’s Award for Research in recognition of her contributions to research excellence; Andil Gosine for his teaching excellence; Teresa Abbruzzese and Lisa Myers for their university service; and Syyed Hosein for his staff support.

EUC awarded four Undergraduate Research Awards (EUCURA) that provide opportunities for selected students to tackle a focused research project this summer under the mentorship of a faculty member.

Colin Maitland will work with Sarah Flicker on the project ‘Promoting Mental Health Through Peer Education Theatre’ to support the scale-up and evaluation of SExT: Sex Education by Theatre, a theatre-based, peer education participatory action research project that engages youth on topics relating to sexual and mental health. Emily Ghaemmaghami will work with Andil Gosine in designing and completing a research project on ‘Visual Arts After Indentureship’ (VAAI). Mereille James will work with Adeyemi Olusola on the project ‘Enhancing Hydraulic Geometry Measurements Using Salt-Dilution Gauging and Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry within the Black Creek River Basin in Toronto’. Kira Jordun will work with Joshua Thienpont on the project ‘Multi-proxy Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Lake Nipigon Using Lake Sediments.’

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.

The project will study the impact of a changing climate and geomorphic changes across different ecosystems, and work with community partners, stakeholders/rightsholders, and decision-makers to facilitate knowledge-to-action around environmental sensitivities. Their research will use the latest technological advancements in field-based surveying, laboratory sample analysis, and computing to understand how and why environmental geohazards are impacting ecosystem sensitivity across Canada.

Carli Melo and Josh Watterton each received a EUC PhD Dissertation Field Research Award for the Winter semester 2025.

Melo’s research is titled ‘Inclusion and exclusion in global production networks: The case of Myanmar migrant seafood processing workers in Thailand’. She is currenlty disseminating her research findings amongst migrant support organizations, policymakers, industry leaders, and academic researchers in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Watterton’s research on ‘Military Spending and Arms Production: A Geographical Analysis’ is investigating the effects of changes in the allocation of the federal defence budget on local stability by examining military production networks across the Connecticut state-region in the US.

Linn Biörklund has been awarded the prestigious York University Dissertation Prize in recognition of her outstanding doctoral work in Geography. Just one dissertation is selected for this award each year from across the University. Linn’s research was titled on ‘Moving, Waiting, Searching Across Borders: Gendered Geographies of Violence, Disappearance and Contestation in Southern Mexico’ and was also nominated by York’s Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) for the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies’ Proquest Distinguished Dissertation award. Linn currently works as Research Associate at York’s Centre for Refugee Studies on a SSHRC-funded project “Refugee dreams, small town realities: Interrogating the ruralization of refugee resettlement to smaller centres in Canada,” led by Jennifer Hyndman.

Maureen Owino, ES PhD candidate, won the 2025 Canadian Association of HIV Research (CAHR) social science new investigator.

Maureen is an activist scholar and researcher with expertise in health equity, implementation science, and community-based participatory research (CBPR). Her work is rooted in advancing Black health, public policy, and social justice, with a specific focus on HIV, COVID-19, and addressing racial injustice.

Dedicated to examining the intersections of health, public policy, and systemic inequities to drive meaningful change, her work bridges research and action, fostering impactful solutions for marginalized communities.

EUC recently celebrated the retirement of Professors Leesa Fawcett, Roger Keil and Linda Peake.

The celebration marks more than 30 years of their active involvement in institution-building, engaged scholarship, and mentorship for students and colleagues alike. Leesa has been recognized for her teaching excellence and critical research in human-animal studies. Roger is internationally recognized for his work on urban political ecology, cities and infectious diseases, and global suburbanization. Linda has advanced feminist and decolonial approaches to urban theory, foregrounding the everyday experiences of women and reshaping how people think about urban knowledge production.

Both Linda and Roger served as The City Institute directors and through their earlier leadership, CITY became a globally respected hub for critical, interdisciplinary urban research and a supportive space for students, early career scholars and community collaborators. Across continents, their ideas and their mentorship have shaped new theories, fostered solidarities, and inspired generations to pursue urban questions with rigour and care.

To honour this legacy, CITY has 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 support to graduate students and emerging scholars working in the critical traditions that Roger and Linda have so powerfully advanced. To learn more on how to donate, click here.

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Gerald Carrothers, Founding Dean of York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies on April 20, 2025 just short of his 100th birthday. A visionary leader, educator, and advocate for sustainability and social justice, Professor Carrothers played a pivotal role in shaping a faculty dedicated to building a better, more equitable future. In 1968, he created an academic unit at York University dedicated to environmental studies at a time when no other university in Canada or beyond was even thinking about such a move. Much can be taken from his environmental leadership in shaping a more just and sustainable world. He was also a creative and thoughtful academic leader, innovating the student-centred Plan of Study as part of the Masters in Environmental Studies that continues as a pedagogical pillar in the MES Program.

In honour of his lasting legacy and commitment to students, we invite you to make a donation to the Gerald Carrothers Graduate Scholarship to support graduate students in the Master of Environmental Studies program, during the research and/or fieldwork stages of their program. Your contribution will support the next generation of changemakers in the field of environmental and urban studies—an enduring tribute to Professor Carrothers’ life’s work.

On April 22, Earth Day, the EUC’s Ecological Footprint Initiative launched the 2025 edition of the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, which includes data from 1961 to 2024 providing insights into how humanity’s resource use is evolving. The accounts was produced for the Footprint Data Foundation.

The Accounts Production Team at York University includes Eric Miller, Kiona Lo, Peri Dworatzek, Neha Basnet and Joanna Silva. The Accounts Production Team at University of Iceland includes Johanna Louise Van Berkum, Rakel Baerings Halldorsdottir and Matthew Dyck.

The edition was produced using data from global statistics that detail consumption, production, population, and economic parameters by year, and by country or the world. Key sources include the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and its PopStat, ProdStat, TradeStat, ResourceStat, and FishStat databases, Sea Around Us, UN COMTRADE, CORINE Land Cover, Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ), Global Land Cover (GLC), Global Carbon Budget, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Penn World Tables.

Publications and Reports

Bain, A., L., & Podmore, J., A. (2025). Queerburbia: LGBTQ2S Suburban Place-Making. Routledge.

Brand-Correa, L. (2025). The conditions for a path beyond capitalism. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 14, 8912.

Carroll, D., Redvers, N., & McGregor, D. (2025). Rebuilding a KINship Approach to the Climate Crisis: A Comparison of Indigenous Knowledges Policy in Canada and the United States, Journal of Indigenous Social Development, Volume 13, No. 1. 

Coleman, K., Palmer, M., Quinton, W., Thienpont, J., & Korosi, J. (2025). Spatiotemporal variabilitiy in chromophoric dissolved organic carbon in small, shallow lakes from discontinuous permafrost peatlands (Taiga Plains, Northwest Territories, Canada). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

Das, R. (2025). Theories for Radical Change: Key Texts from the Political Economy of Marx and Lenin. Brill.

Found, William C (2025). The Making of the Caribbean Landscape: Images from a Changing Island World. 1st Ed., Dalvorem International.

Li, Q., Hu, B., Shang, J., & Remmel, T., K. (2025). Two-stage deep learning framework for individual tree crown detection and delineation in mixed-wood forests using high-resolution light detection and ranging data. Remote Sensing, 17(9), 1578.

Obateru, R., O., Okhimamhe, A., A., Fashae, O., A., Olusola, A., Dragovich, D., & Conrad, C. (2025). Assessing the status of ecosystem regulating services in the urbanising Rainforest and Guinea savanna ecological regions of Nigeria using InVEST models. Urban Climate, 61, 102410.

Pagaling, Nikki Mary (2025). From Caregiver to Personal Support Worker: Canada’s Caregiver Programs and Labour Market Segmentation Among Filipina Women in Toronto. Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Reflections on Research, Issue 19, April.

Quesnel, A., & Hugill, D. (2025). Taxi Wars 2.0: Digital Ride-Hailing and the Long Arc of “Disruption” in the Canadian Private Taxi Industry. Urban History Review 53(1), 25-42.

Sandberg, A. (2025). Civilizational Virtue, Civilizational Autonomy, and Existential Risks, Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Volume 35, No. 2.

Thomson, B., Cox, S., Fitz, D., Doocy, S. & Podur, J. (2025). GDP/LE and the Environment: The Ratio of Gross Domestic Product and Life Expectancy Predicts Adverse National Environmental Outcomes, Social Science Research Network, Elsevier.

Vries, V. D., & Kapoor, I. (2025). Psychoanalytic political ecology. Political Geography, 118, 103297.

Whitney, R., A., & Sotomayor, L. (2025). Peripheral best practices and the politics of visibility: Urban planning and social urbanism in Mexico City. Cities, 158, 105667.

Women & Environments International Magazine: Identities and Knowledges of Care, No. 102, Spring 2025.

EUC and Associated Events

EUC has an ongoing relationship with the Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC), which is holding its annual conference as part of Congress 2025 to be held in Toronto from June 1-3. One highlight will be a keynote by Ellie Perkins on June 2nd on “Canada, the IPCC, and Climate Justice”.

EUC is co-sponsoring an ESAC networking reception on Sunnday June 1st at 6pm-7.30pm at the St James Campus of George Brown College (downtown at 200 King St E). Please consider going if you would like to connect with other environmental researchers from across Canada. You do not need to be registered for Congress to attend that event.

The 2025 Annual Conference will be packed with exciting in-person and digital events and opportunities, including special undergraduate research showcase; keynote events and special sessions with leaders in the field of sustainability; joint session on “Biodiversity and Society” with the Environmental Sociology Research Cluster of the Canadian Sociological Association; and announcement of the 2025 ECO-Award winners; hybrid academia-practitioner networking event; and research sharing and networking opportunities in French, English, and Spanish.

The CITY Institute will be holding its Annual General Meeting, Meet and Greet on June 18 from 1:30pm at Kaneff Tower, York University. For those interested to know more about the research centre, its mandate and governance, board, executive and staff, activities and projects as well as affiliate/membership opportunities, please register here.

The Marxist Studies in Global and Asian Perspectives Research Group at York University will hold a conference on The Power of Marxist Thought from September 26-27, 2025 at York University. The conference will assess the impact and importance of Marxism in the context of the wider intellectual realm, and how central theory is to its very existence. Papers by scholars from across disciplines will include topics on anthropology, economics, human geography, political science, social psychology, sociology, among others that are expected to demonstrate intellectual power of Marxist thought, especially in relation to the serious problems and issues facing humanity.

The event is sponsored by Science & Society; Critical Sociology; Socialist Register; YorkU Global Labour Research Centre; Alternate Routes; Capital & Class; and the York University Faculty of Environment and Urban Change. For more info, contact the Organizing Collective at msgap@yorku.ca.

Recent Events

Lisa Myers recently launched her podcast, Sounds Like Land as part of her SSHRC project on Thinking with Indigenous Languages & Plant Knowledge. The podcast explores the deep and powerful relationships between Indigenous languages and ecological knowledge. Through rich conversations with Indigenous artists, Knowledge Holders, and Language Speakers, the podcast team invites listeners to hear the land, the swamps, and non-human kin. Each episode offers stories of transgenerational wisdom, resistance, and regeneration.

The initial podcast titled Lúlem tl’a spén̓em̓ay̓ Chésha7 temíx̱w Si7la spén̓em̓ayy̓ / Song of the garden, Mother Earth, Grandmother Garden unfurls at the Harmony Garden, a community-centered food forest located in X̱wemelch’stn / Squamish Nation Capilano Reserve. In upcoming Episode 2 on Tmicw-kt / Our Land Is My Language, Tania Willard will visit three matriarchs near her home in Secwépemc territory and her work in Syilx territories, discussing their robust contributions on land and language revitalization. You can listen to the podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and through the project website.

Anna Zalik recently organized a symposium at York University titled From the Niger Delta, Nigeria to the World – Charting a Global Just Transition Agenda. Informed by the Final Report of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, the symposium brought together a diverse group of scholars, community leaders and activists, legal experts, and international advocates who examined the relationship between the prospects for a global just transition, the Niger Delta’s enduring environmental crisis, and extractive violence in resource-rich areas in North America and elsewhere.

A keynote address was delivered by Rev. Nnimmo Bassey, renowned global environmental justice activist, director of the ecological think tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation (Nigeria), and a recipient of York Honorary Doctor of Laws. The symposium was supported by the International Working Group on Petroleum Pollution and a Just Transition in the Niger Delta with co-sponsorship from York’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change; Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research; Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security; Harriett Tubman Institute; York International, and York VP Research & Innovation.

On April 8th EUC held its first 3-minute thesis event to showcase graduate student research. The event involved 25 graduate students from MA, MSc, MES and PhD programs in Geography and Environmental Studies. Each presented their work in a concise and engaging way. The event was also an opportunity for students from across different degree programs and year cohorts to meet informally and exchange ideas.

Other EUC media and news coverage

Ilan Kapoor was featured in YFile News with several publications highlighting his use of psychoanalytic theory to explore areas such as neoliberalism, capitalism and international development. “Psychoanalysis focuses on unconscious desire, which obeys a logic not of good sense, rationality and self-interest, but rather excess and irrationality,” says Kapoor. “And, it is this insatiability of human desire that helps explain the relentlessness of capital accumulation and profit maximization today. It helps us understand such contemporary phenomena as overconsumption, excessive waste and environmental destruction to the point of imperilling not only accumulation but life itself.” 

On the broader impact of his research, Kapoor says, “The positive reception of this research by esteemed scholars and journals underscores its relevance and potential to reshape academic and political debates. It is gratifying to see this interdisciplinary approach being recognized as a valuable contribution to the field.”

Deborah McGregor and Ellie Perkins were cited in CBC Science News, highlighting that Canada will no longer cover travel costs of experts it nominates to UN’s climate science body. McGregor and Perkins have both been involved in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is directly affected by the Canadian government’s decision to stop covering travel costs for nominated experts. McGregor noted that this situation may particularly affect early career researchers, or those primarily in the social sciences/humanities, who often don’t have a lot of research funding necessary to attend the four mandatory in-person IPPC meetings. Perkins echoed McGregor’s sentiment: “What that means is that there’s a disciplinary imbalance in who has access to more money, because the bigger your grant, the more likely there could be little bits and dregs around the edges that you can reallocate for a trip that relates to your IPCC work,” she said.

Steven Tufts was cited in The Hamilton Speculator and The Tyee in an article on Poilievre’s Bid to Woo the Union Vote Is Hitting Snags. Tufts offers insights into the Conservative party’s efforts to gain union support as he believes the federal Conservatives are trying to emulate the success of their Ontario counterparts. Tufts acknowledges the Conservatives are receiving some support from labour leaders, particularly trade unions, who anticipate employment opportunities from the party’s commitment to investing in home and road building.

While some policies like federal funding for housing and excluding “radical anti-car and anti-road” policies appeal to some large construction unions, Tufts does not see these endorsements as indicative of a broader shift to the right by the labour movement. Tufts concludes that the Conservatives will need to offer “some kind of vision other than cuts and investment in infrastructure” to maintain endorsements from the trades.

Mark Winfield penned an article in The Conversation titled Canada’s federal election doesn’t seem like it’s about climate change, but it actually is. Prior to U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions to threaten the Canadian economy and the impact of inflation, triggered in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the environment and climate were central issues for the last few federal elections. Winfield says the current federal election is very different, with more Canadians focused on economic concerns, but still, there is strong support for climate action. With federal candidates more focused on the economy than climate action for this election, the environment will bear the costs of plans to ramp up Canada’s energy sector.  

Mark Winfield also co-wrote a news article titled Nuclear energy means climate action delay in the NB Media Co-op proposing to build new nuclear reactors to serve as a strategy for electricity utilities to delay the transition away from fossil fuels. They argue that while other options like energy efficiency and renewables are faster and cheaper, proposing nuclear, maintains the status quo and delays actual climate action due to notoriously long design and build times, often measured in decades with significant delays. Winfield shares the view that  promising more nuclear power is a “political path to climate action delay”. He, along with O’Donnell, highlights that provinces like Ontario and New Brunswick are investing in new fossil gas infrastructure while waiting for unproven and unbuilt reactor designs, demonstrating how nuclear proposals lead to delays. They cite examples like the BWRX-300 and Monark designs facing significant development hurdles, and the Vogtle project experiencing massive delays and cost overruns, to support their argument that new nuclear projects are hindering the shift to a decarbonized energy system.