EUC Research Updates - November/December 2024

Accolades, Awards and Acknowledgements

Geography at York University was ranked in the top five in Canada and top 100 in the world by the global Shanghai Ranking. The Shanghai Ranking presents its subject ranking as “one of the most comprehensive and objective rankings of world universities by subjects” with a focus on high-impact research. York was also 35th in the world in the 2024 THE Impact Rankings (focusing on contributions to the UN SDGs), and was once again ranked as a top five 'comprehensive' university in Canada in Maclean’s 2025 University Rankings. For more details, please see News@York.

Martin Bunch has been contracted to review and finalize the methodology for research survey data collection for the Fortifying Equality and Economic Diversification for Resilience (FEED) Project II - a women's empowerment initiative that uses a food security and livelihoods platform across seven states in South Sudan. The ultimate goal of FEED II is to reduce inequalities between women and men in their access to and control over resources, and to enhance food security in South Sudan. FEED is implemented by a consortium of World Vision, CARE and War Child and funded by Global Affairs Canada.

Raju Das was awarded the "Distinguished Achievement Award in Political Economy for the 21st Century" by the World Association of Political Economy for his book Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations (Routledge, 1st Edition 2022). The award recognizes an individual's academic achievements that have made important innovations in the theory and methodology of political economy. He also launched his new book Interrogating the Future: Essays in Honour of David Fasenfest (Brill, 2024) featuring the editors/contributors to the volume, including Robert Latham, York University; Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley; and Ricardo Dello Buono, Manhattan University. During the October launch, David Fasenfest, Professor Emeritus at Wayne State University and EUC Adjunct Professor, provided remarks about the book and also offered guidance and support to early career scholars.

Mahtot Gebresselassie received a Connected Minds seed grant for her research project “Developing an AI-Based Tool for Optimizing Disability Accessibility of Pedestrian Networks in Marginalized Neighborhoods.” Focusing on the Jane and Finch area in Toronto, the project will integrate artificial intelligence (AI), aerial imagery and community insights to enhance mobility for individuals with disabilities. With expertise from Gaussian Solutions, the research aims to transform poorly maintained pedestrian networks into inclusive pathways, supporting equitable access to transportation in marginalized communities

Nadha Hassen’s dissertation, “Park Perceptions and Racialized Realities: Visualizing Social and Health Equity in Public Urban Greenspaces,” has been chosen as the winner of the Best PhD Dissertation in Canadian Studies (2024) for its innovative interdisciplinary research on urban  green spaces, public health and social justice issues through a unique methodology of photovoice, interviews, critical race theory and community engagement. Hassen’s dissertation offers pathways for future research practices in the field of urban planning and foundations for community engagement in academic research that is decolonial and antiracist. Sarah Flicker served as her supervisor.

Sarah Swan, MES Planning graduate, was awarded the Michael Baptista Essay Prize for her paper on Community Mapping of Environmental and Health Risks in Ciudad Bolivar, Bogotà, Colombia. Swan's research explored community planning efforts in the marginalized neighborhoods of Soacha and Ciudad Bolivar, contributing to the broader discourse on urban planning and climate resilience in the Global South, while exploring the efficacy of community mapping techniques in communicating a community’s complexity. Liette Gilbert served as her supervisor.

Mark Terry, EUC adjunct professor has been awarded the prestigious J. Robert Cox Award for Environmental Communication and Civic Engagement by the National Communication Association (NCA). This marks the first time the award has been given to someone outside the U.S. in the NCA’s 110-year history. Drawing on his experience as a polar explorer and documentary filmmaker, Terry developed the Geo-Doc platform, an innovative approach that has revolutionized how environmental information is presented to policymakers.

Gregory Thiemann has been contracted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada to analyze the fatty acid composition of blubber samples from ringed seals harvested from Ulukhaktok area in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories.

As part of the project, Thiemann will analyze the fatty acid composition of blubber samples from 344 ringed seals harvested from 2016 to 2024. In September, Thiemann delivered a polar bear lecture at Tawich in the City, an event presented by Mushkegowuk Council and Wildlands League. Tawich is the Cree word for the coastal and offshore areas of this great inland sea that includes Hudson Bay and James Bay.

Congratulations to the CITY Graduate Student Conference paper award winners in October 2024.

Advanced Research Category:

• Best Paper Award: Elham Akhbari, PhD student in Environmental Studies, for their outstanding paper “Abandoning Skylines: Conceptualizing the Rise and Fall of Toronto High-Rises,” which provides original and theoretically informed insights into the process of rental stock abandonment and deterioration in Toronto amidst the rise of luxury financialized condominiums.
• Special Mention: Ian Weir and Madison Stirling, MES Planning students, for their “What is Tall? Density and Urban Form” paper. The Awards Committee praised the authors for “their rigorous data analysis and exceptional job of transforming a seemingly simple concept (building heights) into a nuanced analysis.”
• Best Presentation Award: Farida Rady, PhD Student in Geography, for her presentation of the paper “Visions of Governance, Citizenship, and Order: A Discourse Analysis of Toronto’s Encampment Evictions,” which offered a compelling case of how the practice of evicting the unhoused residents of encampments in 2021 was premeditated and planned by municipal staff and relied on practices of deception.

Research in Motion Category:

• Best Presentation Award: Christopher Sorio, MA student in Geography, for his presentation titled “Best Before Date: 2nd Feb 2024 – The Breakdown of Protections for Precarious Workers in the GTA: The story of Del Monte in Oshawa”.
• Special Mention: Lawrenz Decano, MA student in Geography, for his presentation titled “The View from the Driver’s Seat: Urban Stories of App-based Delivery Drivers Navigating Precarity in the City of Lethbridge”.

After serving as EUC Executive Officer for 17 years, Paul Elliott has decided to retire from York University. As our chief non-academic administrator, he has been responsible for the daily operations and strategic oversight of all non-academic services in the Faculty, responsible for budget planning and financial control, human resources, administration and policy, facilities and space management. Nicki Hemmings, former EUC people partner in 2021-2023 and Manager of Resources and Planning at the Faculty of Health has been appointed as our new Executive Officer. Thank you, Paul and welcome back, Nicki!

We also welcome our new Director for the Office of Student and Academic Services (OSAS), Vina Sandher!

Thanks and best wishes to Jackson Langat, our EUC Geography Biogeochemistry Lab Technician, who will be retiring at the end of the year. For over 23 years, Jackson has played a key role in the teaching and research programs of the Department of Geography and EUC. His kindness, humour, experience and knowledge will be greatly missed.

The York University community is mourning the loss of Neil Marcellus Livingston, MES graduate and PhD student in Humanities. Neil passed away in September after being diagnosed with an advanced and rare form of kidney cancer that progressed rapidly.

Neil led a life focused on family, academics, arts, and service. He touched and impacted many lives, challenged all to think harder and explore, and brightened the lives of people with his endless smile. He leaves his wife of more than 21 years, Claudia Gibson, and their three young daughters Nyah, Luna, and Hannah. A GoFundMe page has been set up in critical support for his family.

Publications and Reports

Aguiar, R., Keil, R., Gray, R., & Wiktorowicz, M. (2024). One health governance of antimicrobial resistance seen through an Urban Political Ecology lens: a critical interpretive synthesis. Critical Public Health, 34(1), 1–23.

Bain, A. and Podmore, J. (2024). Chapter 8: Gender in a world of suburbs in Handbook on Gender and Cities edited by Linda Peake et al. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bediako, V. J. (2024). Book Review: Migration, crisis and temporality at the Zimbabwe-South Africa border: Governing immobilities by Kudakwashe Vanyoro, Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2024, 190 pp., $139.95 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1529225815. Cultural Studies, 1–4.

Brass, T., & Das, R. J. (Eds, 2024). Interrogating the Future: Essays in Honour of David Fasenfest (Vol. 287). BRILL.

de Vries, P. de Vries and Kapoor, I. (2024). “Informality as Global Capitalism’s Unconscious,” Emotion, Space and Society, 53: 1-9 (open access).

Dorin, B. and Colla, S. (2024). Observations of wild bees foraging on wine grape (Vitis vinifera L.) flowers – first records and future research directions. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario.

Dowler, L., Hyndman, J., Sharp, J. (2024). Feminist Geopolitical Futures. In: Menga, F., Nagel, C., Grove, K., Peters, K. (eds) Political Geography in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Dworatzek, P. Letang, D. Miller, E. Mandel, Y. (2024). Ontario Municipal Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts. First Edition. [Dataset]. Produced for the Rural Ontario Institute by York University Ecological Footprint Initiative in partnership with Rural Ontario Institute.

Dworatzek, P., Letang, D., Miller, E., Mandel, Y. (2024). Methodological Handbook: Deriving Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts for Ontario Communities. Report. Prepared for the Rural Ontario Institute.

Ferguson, S., Higdon, J., Young, B., Petersen, S., Carlyle, C., Lea, E., Sauve, C., Kohlbach, D., Fisk, A., Thiemann, G. et. al. (2024). A comparative analysis of life-history features and adaptive strategies of Arctic and subarctic seal species - who will win the climate change challenge?. Canadian Journal of Zoology. Just-IN.

Gibson, J.R. (2024). Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: Voices of the Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841. Revised Edition. McGill-Queen's University Press.

Gibson, J.R. (2024). Hungry and Starving: Voices of the Great Soviet Famine, 1928–1934. McGill-Queen's University Press.

Gilbert, L. and Sotomayor, L. (2024). Non-status citizenship and the paradoxes of immigration regimes in a Sanctuary City. Antipode. November.

Havice, E., Zalik, A., Campbell, L. and Gray, N (2024). The conservation-extraction nexus in ocean areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Tension or co-constitution? Journal of Agrarian Change. October.

Kapoor, I. and Cavanagh, S. (2024). “Missing in Action: Where’s the Unconscious in Anti-Racist ‘Unconscious Bias Training’?,” Humanities, 13(18): 1-13, special theme issue on “Global Antiracism” (open access).

Keil, R. (2024). The Long View: Henri, Christian and the Theory of the Production of Urban Space. Raumforschung und Raumordnung – Spatial Research and Planning. 82/5: 363–365.

Kerr, B. and Remmel, T.K. (2024). Activity-based measures of landscape fragmentation. Landscape Ecology. 39, 198.

Lakhan, C. (2024). Barriers to Laminated Film Recycling: Challenges and Opportunities in Engineering Solutions. Journal of Engineering Research and Reports, 26 (10).

Lakhan, C. (2024). Understanding illegal dumping in Ontario: Drivers, barriers, and policy recommendations. GSC Advanced Research and Reviews, 20(03), 212–225.

Lakhan, C. (2024). Evaluating the Effectiveness, Costs, and Challenges of Deposit Return Systems for Beverage Containers: A Meta-Analysis Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4946147 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4946147.

Letang, D., Dworatzek, P., Miller, E., Mandel, Y. (2024). Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity for Rural Ontario. Report. Prepared for the Rural Ontario Institute.

Mulvihill, P. (2024). Pieces of an Inter-Disciplinary Puzzle: Connecting Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Disaster Studies. In Geography Compass, Volume18, Issue10, October.

Olusegun, C. F., Ogunjo, S. T., & Olusola, A. (2024). West African Monsoon Precipitation Extremes: A Comparative Analysis of HighResMIP CMIP6 Atmosphere-Only and Coupled Models. AGU24.

Peake, L., Razavi, N. and Smyth, A. (2024). Doing Feminist Urban Research: Insights from the GenUrb Project. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Sandhu, R., A. Rougeot, P.D. Josephy, D. Dolan, C. Emenike, T.K. Takaro, L.M. Leon and G.S. Fraser 2024. The management of Canadian oil sands tailing pond waste: tighter regulations and greater transparency are needed. Opinion piece for Evidence Based Toxicology 2(1).

Sandilands, C. (2024). Pyric futures (following Audre Lorde). Journal of Lesbian Studies, 1–5.

Scott, D. N. (2024). How the Settler State Continues to Dispossess: Infrastructural (Dis)Entitlement on the Critical Minerals Frontier (October 01, 2024). Journal of Law & Political Economy (forthcoming) , Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper No. 4973404, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4973404 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4973404.

Sotomayor, L. (2024). Chapter 28: Housing: recentring global feminist perspectives in Handbook on Gender and Cities edited by Linda Peake et al. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Winfield, M. (2024). Federalism and Climate Change in Canada. Jahrbuch des Föderalismus. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.

EUC Events and Media Coverage

Upcoming events

EUC presents “Environmental Genocide: A Discussion of the Human and Environmental Costs of Oil in Nigeria” on Wednesday, November 27 from 12nn-2pm EDT as part of the Africa Is Not a Country Research Seminar Series. The series aims to address the absent, inadequate, skewed, and inaccurate representation of Africa and African issues in global discourse.

Guest scholars include Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou, director of politics and governance, ODI Global; Professor Engobo Emeseh, head of the School of Law, University of Bradford, U.K.; and Isaac “Asume” Osuoka, Social Action International.

Join us for this critical discussion on often-overlooked conflicts and their global implications. Our guest scholars will provide unique insights into the environmental situation in Nigeria. We encourage York faculty members, students, postdocs, visiting scholars, staff and other interested parties to attend the seminar. We look forward to your participation in this event. Register here to attend online.

You can also join us for All About Food on Wednesday, November 27 from 12-2pm at the EUC lounge for the first event in the Environmental Arts and Justice (EAJ) Collaboration Station Series where EAJ students and faculty collaborate.

In this first episode, we will explore sustainable food systems through cooking with "Three Sisters" ingredients while sharing insights about the EAJ program.

On Saturday, November 30, six new short films from Nepal, Bulgaria, Brazil, Ecuador, and Canada tell urgent and extraordinary stories about living with HIV today. The techniques are as diverse as their makers: from lush animation and staged floral portraits, to radical sex performances and hybrid documentary mash-ups. Their voices are equally unforgettable, brimming with laughter, tears, fury, and joyful activism. Together, they explore autobiographical stories from around the globe about this pandemic, which still claims more than half a million lives every year.

These six short films were produced by Viral Interventions, a York University research-creation project led by John Greyson and Sarah Flicker that, since 2020, has commissioned artists, activists, and scholars to collaborate on making new films about living with HIV today. Co-presented with Vtape, Sensorium, Archive/Counter Archive, Digital Justice, the Arquives, CATIE, Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, AIDS Committee of Toronto, and TIFF Community Impact. The duration of this event is 100 minutes and includes a post-screening conversation with the filmmakers.

On Thursday, December 5, the Centre for Refugee Studies presents a book launch on Forced migration in/to Canada: From colonization to refugee resettlement (MQUP 2024). Offering a comprehensive resource in the growing field of migration studies, the book is a critical primer from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Speakers include Yvonne Su, Emily Andrew, Jennifer Hyndman, Christina Clark-Kazak, Tanya Aberman, Francisco-Fernando Granados, Geoffrey Cameron, Yuriko Cowper-Smith, Jocelyn Kane, Michaela Hynie, Yvonne Su, Geneviève Minville and Natasha Henry-Dixon.

Researchers, practitioners, and knowledge keepers draw on documentary evidence and analysis to foreground lived experiences of displacement and migration policies at the municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal levels. From the earliest instances of Indigenous displacement and settler colonialism, through Black enslavement, to statelessness, trafficking, and climate migration in today’s world, contributors show how migration, as a human phenomenon, is differentially shaped by intersecting identities and structures. Register here.

On Thursday, December 5, Joseph Palis, from the Department of Geography, University of the Philippines, will give a talk on '(Re)imagining islands, island worlds and archipelagoes through narratives and discursive cartographies'. The presentation will use a Filipino-Canadian film called Islands (2021) to engage with these provocations.

Palis' teaching and research are in the fields of cultural geography, media geographies, geo-humanities, counter-cartographies, island and archipelagic geographies, and film and music geographies. He completed a PhD in Geography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2008, and has served as both Director of the Third World Studies Centre and as Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of the Philippines. Palis is visiting EUC as a Scholar-in-Residence.

Recent events

In celebration of Geography Awareness Week from November 18-22, EUC held a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day that dived into exciting discussions, hands-on workshops and insightful presentations to enhance understanding and application of GIS. A global event celebrating the transformative power of geomatics and GIS, every year institutions and enthusiasts worldwide recognize the profound impact these technologies have on our daily lives, from urban planning and environmental conservation to disaster management and beyond.

Tarmo Remmel, EUC professor and GIS scientist presided over the event with Ranu Basu and Adeyemi Olusola also from EUC, as well as other York units. EUC is proud to be at the forefront of geomatics research and innovation and our celebration showcases cutting-edge projects, facilitate knowledge exchange, and inspire the next generation of GIS professionals.

During the month of November, other geography-related events were held such as the Centre for Refugee Studies and EUC Seminar: on Migrant labour on land and at sea: Labour geographies of global food processing with Professor Emeritus Peter Vandergeest, former EUC postdoc now with University of Lethbridge Bronwyn Bragg and Geography graduate student Lawrenz Decano. The Friday Graduate Program in Geography Colloquium also featured York Geograpy PhD alumnus Tyler McCreary, Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Florida State University, who spoke about Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities: Colonial Extractivism and Wet'suwet'en Resistance.

With the York University Geography Alumni Network (YUGAN), and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, EUC hosted the Geography Graduate Program Annual Lecture with Emilie Cameron, Associate Professor from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. Cameron's lecture was titled "Where is settler colonialism?".

The PhD in Environmental Studies Students Association (PhESSA) led by Tim Quick and Clara Gomez, in cooperation with ES PhD Coordinator Cate Sandilands, organized the annual Environmental Studies PhD Research Day that showcased the rich diversity of work by PhD students in the program. As we confront interconnected environmental, economic and political precarity crises, the student presenters addressed the question on how work in environmental studies can inform our ability to care for and repair both the material and the intangible realities necessary to sustain life on Earth. Stuart Schussler, ES PhD 2023, delivered the keynote address titled Caring for Each Other, Caring for Society: On the Reproductive Labour of Organizing. EUC Dean Alice Hovorka provided the closing remarks.

EUC hosted a talk on Confronting Scholasticide that featured Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban, EUC Visiting Professor and Dean at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, State of Palestine. In this event (available on the EUC Youtube channel), Dr. Abu Shaban discussed the systematic destruction of Palestinian education by the Israeli state as well as lived-experiences of the impact of genocide and scholasticide on Gazan students, faculty, administration and institutions of higher learning. In his talk, chaired by Anna Zalik, Dr. Abu Shaban described education as a form of resistance against the Israeli occupation, noting that: “Yes, they have destroyed our buildings, yes, they destroyed our infrastructure, but we are still alive. We are still resisting. We still have hope for a future, and this is the most important thing we want to tell the world,” he says. (See related feature story in Toronto Star).

EUC's Urban Wilds Seminar Series launched this Fall with the first two sessions on Terrain Vague and Habitat Creation/Reconciliation held in October/November. The series explores the ecological evolution of cities, focusing on wilderness as an ecological attribute that expresses freedom and possibility in urban spaces.

The next two sessions on Prison Ecologies and Queer Ecologies will be held in early 2025. Organized by Jennifer Foster, the series takes a relational approach to ecology, valuing the relationships between and among life forms.

Eric Miller, Director of the Ecological Footprint Initiative, spoke on a panel at the first-ever Doughnut Economics Toronto Collective event this November. The panel made up of individuals with diverse professional backgrounds spoke about their work and the relationship it has to the doughnut economics framework. Mike Layton, Chief Sustainability Officer at York University, moderated the panel and offered insights into projects in the City of Toronto that reflected the doughnut framework. Eric spoke of innovative ways that ecological footprint and biocapacity data could be incorporated into doughnut economics frameworks.

Peter Victor, EUC Professor Emeritus and Co-Director of the International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab (IEFLL) was interviewed by Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, for their Deep Dive series Moving Beyond Growth. In this discussion, Peter spoke about post-growth and degrowth and how ecological footprint data can be used to understand the path of degrowth. 

The Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC), also hosted a panel and social event this fall in collaboration with the EUC Faculty. The event showcased research and projects done by researchers at the Ecological Footprint Initiative (EFI), Eric Miller, Director of EFI; Kiona Lo, Senior Data Analyst at EFI; and Kaitlin Pal, EUC Undergraduate Research Assistant. Sayeh Dastgheib-Beheshti, EUC PhD student and ESAC board member, led the planning and hosting of this event.

Also for the past two years, researchers at the Ecological Footprint Initiative (EFI) have worked in partnership with the Rural Ontario Institute (ROI) to produce Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity accounts for Ontario Municipalities. This is the first time this has been done for all municipalities in Ontario. Peri Dworatzek, an EUC PhD student, led this collaborative research with support and mentorship from Eric Miller, Director of EFI, and Danielle Letang, Data Manager at ROI. Peri started this research as a pilot project while in the EUC MES program, and continued working with ROI after graduation to generate the accounts for all municipalities. The data is open-access and accessible on the ROI’s Wellbeing Data Dashboard. The data is accompanied with a summary Results Report and a technical Methodological Report. This research was part of the International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab partnership.

Their first edition of the IEFLL newsletter was also released this fall! The newsletter is released every two months, providing research, training, and partnership updates. If you want to receive the newsletter as it is released, please email, iefll@footprintpartnership.net.

EUC in the News and Media

Deborah Barndt's photo exhibit "Wabi Sabi 2: My Trees and Me" was on display at the Thus Gallery in Toronto in October. Six different showings featured events with Wild Soma dancers, Toronto poets and musicians, a Reconciliation Day and a Day of the Dead ceremony. She also did a presentation at CERLAC's Art and Lit Fest that focused on the arts-based research that led to the co-creation of the Earth to Tables Legacies website and book.

In addition, she offered a guest lecture on Food Sovereignty and Food Justice (online in Spanish) for a course offered in Mexico that led to a Diploma in Environmental Remediation and Microbiology applied to the soil and Agroecological Production; the course had various sponsors including the Michoacán Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, and Earth to Tables Legacies in Canada.

Ranu Basu was invited to present the keynote lecture at the inauguration of the XXI International Seminar on Canadian Studies held this November at the Convention Center of the University of Havana. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Havana, Dr. Maday Alfonso del Rivero Antigua; the Ambassador of Canada in Cuba, Marianick Tremblay; and President of the Studies on Canada, Prof. Reynaldo Jiménez Guethón provided the opening remarks. They spoke of the importance of maintaining historical links between the two countries and continuing humanitarian aid especially during such critical times as hurricanes, earthquakes and storms when the island is experiencing a dirth of material goods, medicine, and fuel shortages. Basu's talk on 'Landscapes of Displacement: Schools-as-Communes towards Sustainable Peace' is based on her SSHRC tri-city project in Cuba, Canada and India alongside solidarity work in Cuba for over a decade.

Sheila Colla was quoted in and article in The Nharwal titled Native bees are an important piece of the pie. Why aren’t we protecting them?.

In this photo essay, it is highlighted that food security relies on a diversity of pollinators on Canadian farms. Honeybees get a lot of credit, but they are actually pushing native species out. In this regard, Colla notes that there is a real need to build resilient food systems.

Gail Fraser was quoted in a City News article titled Is there possible progress in the City’s pigeon birth control pill program? She discussed the the pilot program in Toronto aimed at controlling the pigeon population. The city's goal is to have a targeted impact of a percent 50 reduction.

She notes that it is a hard to control people not to feed the pigeons since pigeons tend to follow the food. She also adds structures known as dovecotes – designed to house pigeons or doves – might be another option.

Andil Gosine previewed his bronze sculpture Ixora Coccinea from his forthcoming exhibition Nature’s Wild at the Art Museum of the Americas (June 2025). In this lecture Research and Academic Program lecture in October at The Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, Gosine considers contemporary and historical personal and sociopolitical catalysts for his sculpture. Ixora Coccinea is at once invested in contestation of anthropocentrism, observation and documentation of the historical significance of the labor system of Indentureship to the formation of Caribbean space and culture, and reckoning with traditions of public monument-making practices.

He also delivered a seminar titled 'A Decade of 'Visual Arts After Indenture' at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies - St. Augustine. In his talk, Gosine reflected on more than a decade of scholarship, art, writing and curation that followed his first exhibit, Art After Indenture. He discussed his early thinking in the field of visual and performative art as it reflected on histories of indenture, and how his approach evolved as he made art, produced scholarship and writing, lived and loved, and curated the work of many other artists and writers; influencing the development of transoceanic conversation, collaboration and community over nearly fifteen years.

Jennifer Hyndman and Bronwyn Bragg penned an opinion piece at The Globe and Mail titled The food-processing industry keeps crying about labour shortages. Is it really true? In this article, Bragg and Hyndman noted that since 2020, they have been conducting research on migration and work in relation to Canada’s beef-processing sector and they have found terrible standards of living among the low-paid temporary foreign workers and immigrant workers that populate the sector. However, rather than focusing on the companies’ questionable claims of “labour shortages” by hiring temporary foreign workers, they propose that Canadian policy makers should focus on higher wages, better conditions of work, and stronger oversight in this sector to encourage Canadian residents back to work in this industry.

Anna Zalik and PhD alumnus Asume Osuoka are members of the Environmental Commissioners and Expert Working Group of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission that released the report on An Environmental Genocide: Counting the Human and Environmental Cost of Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria (2023).

In October 2024, the Commission submitted its final report to Bayelsa State Governor in a ceremonial event that coincided with a special extended State Executive Council meeting at the State House.

The findings and recommendations set a decisive course for restoring Bayelsa’s environment and protecting future generations. Osuoka will also present this report at the Africa Is Not a Country Research Seminar Series on November 27.

Mark Winfield published a Policy Options article titled 'Hey Australia, Ontario is no model for energy and climate policy.' In this article, Winfield emphasized that energy and climate strategy should prioritize policy options with the lowest economic, environmental, technological and safety risks. He pointed out that higher-risk options, like new nuclear, should only be considered where it can be demonstrated that the lower-risk options have been fully optimized and developed in the planning process. Ontario’s current path is going the opposite direction, hence it is difficult to see Ontario as a model for Australia or any other jurisdiction to follow in designing its energy and climate strategy.

In a webinar co-organized with the CEDAR project of St. Thomas University, EUC's Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) co-chaired by Winfield, the event speakers tackled the question of whether more nuclear energy makes sense to decarbonize Canada’s electricity systems and discussed the implications of having more nuclear in Canada’s energy future.