Colonialism, starvation and resistance: How food is weaponized, from Gaza to Canada

by Charles Levkoe, Martha Stiegman, Sarah Rotz and Tamara Soma For more than a year, the Israeli state has been engaged in a massive incursion into Gaza following the October 2023 Hamas attack against Israel. In March 2024, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,

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Understanding the economy’s impact on and relationships with ecosystems

by Andrew Reeves I’m the Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ecological Macroeconomics and Metrics, working in the International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab (IEFLL). My work encompasses several strands of research, all relating to the core assumption of ecological economics: that our economy is an interrelated subset of the natural world. Understanding the economy’s impact on and relationships

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Ethical obligation to confront scholasticide in Gaza

In Fall 2024, EUC hosted an event titled ‘Confronting Scholasticide,’ where visiting professor Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban recounts the struggles of developing independent Palestinian educational institutions amid the Israel-Palestine conflict. Dr. Shaban, an Associate Professor and Dean at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza, Palestine shares his experiences managing a university while facing considerable barriers. Also

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Brewing change: Rethinking coffee cup habits for a sustainable future

by Daniela Palma “The truth is, the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water, and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.” – David Attenborough Every day, countless people in Toronto grab a coffee to go, but

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Making invisible stories visible and enabling the storytelling of untold stories through discursive cartographies

EUC welcomes Professor Joseph Palis as a scholar-in-residence from the Department of Geography at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Palis specializes in cultural geography, media geographies, island and archipelagic geographies as well as film and music geographies. As part of his residency in Toronto, he will undertake research on Filipinos in diaspora and their conceptions

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Algal assemblage change in a shallow boreal lake as a response to climate intensified permafrost thaw

by Thomas Wu The past half century of climate change has seen the Canadian boreal subarctic experience warming air temperatures, more thunderstorms, and changes to local vegetation, resulting in increased forest fires. This has accelerated permafrost thaw, converting boreal peatland forests into new wetlands and small lakes, completely altering water quality and how water flows

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Urban community garden as an assemblage of more-than-human environmental justice

by Käthe Ploeger While there has been quite some research on environmental justice in Toronto’s urban agriculture, few of them have included internal micropolitical landscapes and even fewer have considered the more-than-human world in the gardens. I am pleased to have the chance to delve deeper into the human and more-than-human relations that form the

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Trans activism within the realm of urban planning

by Carmen Armignonette, Master in Environmental Studies (MES) Planning Alumna My research focuses on trans activism within the realm of urban planning, framing it as a form of counter-planning. This interest stems from my position at the intersection of multiple marginalities, motivating me to explore how marginalized groups can shape their urban environments. I argue

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Planetary health risks in urban agriculture

by Nilanjana Ganguli , Anna Maria Subic, Janani Maheswaran and Byomkesh Talukder  Abstract: Urban agriculture is gaining recognition for its potential contributions to environmental resilience and climate change adaptation, providing advantages such as urban greening, reduced heat island effects, and decreased air pollution. Moreover, it indirectly supports communities during weather events and natural disasters, ensuring food security and fostering community cohesion. However, concerns about planetary health

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Modeling urban runoff: Uncovering hydrologic changes in the Black Creek Basin with HEC-HMS

By Katherine Tse Introduction The Humber River Catchment (HRC), covering around 900 square kilometers, is the largest catchment managed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). Rapid urban development to accommodate population growth will likely impact the catchment’s hydrology, sparking concerns about its resilience and response to increased impervious surfaces and stormwater runoff. Under

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