As communities around the world face increasingly complex emergencies, the demand for disaster and emergency management expertise continues to grow. Addressing population displacement, public safety risks and long‑term recovery requires approaches grounded in research, policy and community engagement.

At 91��ɫ, the Master of Disaster & Emergency Management (MDEM) program supports graduate‑level study focused on preparedness, response and recovery across diverse contexts. This September, the program welcomes Tommy Taylor, recipient of the $20,000 Chancellor Bennett Master’s Scholarship for Liberal Arts.

Administered through the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS), the scholarship recognizes incoming graduate students with strong academic achievement and research potential. For Taylor, entering the MDEM program reflects a long‑standing commitment shaped by lived experience and community‑based emergency response work.

_{Photo of Tommy Taylor}

“The honest answer is that I didn’t find this field – it found me, twice,” Taylor says.

His first encounter came in 2010 during the G20 Summit in Toronto, where he was a part of the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. The experience, which later informed his solo documentary performance You Should Have Stayed Home, shaped his understanding of disasters as events influenced by policy and power. “They are shaped by decisions about whose safety counts and whose doesn’t,” he says.

Taylor’s second formative experience emerged during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when he spent several years working on the frontlines of crisis response for unhoused community members, including in shelter and harm‑reduction settings. Witnessing systemic gaps in emergency response prompted him to pursue graduate study. “I needed to understand these systems from the inside,” he says, “so I could help rebuild them.”

Through its interdisciplinary approach, the MDEM program enables students to examine emergencies through social, economic and policy lenses. Under the guidance of 91��ɫ faculty members, Taylor will focus his research on how emergency management systems can better account for social vulnerability and lived experience.

Receiving the Chancellor Bennett Scholarship provides Taylor with the stability to fully engage in his studies. He says the recognition affirms the value of professional and community‑based experience in shaping effective research and policy.

“My goal is to help build emergency management frameworks that take social vulnerability seriously, not as an afterthought, but as the organizing principle,” Taylor says.

As he begins his studies, Taylor joins a community of graduate students and researchers working to strengthen preparedness and inform policy that supports communities when they need it most.

_{Photo of Marwah Azizi}

At the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Azizi has found a community that values inclusion, global awareness, and practical impact. The MDEM program’s interdisciplinary curriculum—spanning topics from humanitarian response and pandemics to healthcare emergencies, terrorism, and crisis theory—has provided her with a comprehensive foundation for understanding the complexities of disaster management. “The diversity of perspectives within the program has helped me think critically about how to approach crises with both analysis and empathy,” she says.

Looking ahead, Azizi hopes to carry the lessons from her graduate studies into her next chapter: medical education. Her vision is to combine medical expertise with disaster and emergency management knowledge to serve in war zones and conflict-affected regions—helping communities in their most vulnerable moments.

Through her academic journey, Azizi embodies the spirit of 91��ɫ’s graduate community: a commitment to learning that drives positive change and builds a better, more compassionate future for all.

_{From left to right the names are as follows:
Dr. Ali Asgary, Dr. Eric Kennedy, Dr. Jennifer Spinney (Area Coordinator), Dr. Evalyna Bogdan, Dr. Aaida Mamuji (Graduate Program Director), Dr. Jack Rozdilsky, Dr. Nirupama Agrawal}

The PhD in disaster and emergency management is designed to link academic study and professional experience to support the development of theories, methods, policies and practices in the field. The program will incorporate advanced courses, focused mentorship from established faculty, relationship development with DEM practitioners, a supportive environment for pursuing innovative research, as well as the development of teaching and public outreach skills.

Whether the goal is to pursue a career in academia or to bring evidence-based practices into the field, the program’s equal focus on both knowledge production and mobilization will equip students to tackle either path with confidence.

Prospective students are invited to attend to ask questions about 91��ɫ U’s graduate programs in DEM (master’s and PhD). They can also attend one of three about the new PhD program, specifically, scheduled for: Sept. 23, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2 from 11 to 12 p.m.

Applications for the inaugural cohort will be accepted from October 2024 to January 2025. For more information, contact Mamuji at amamuji@yorku.ca.