Robert Hache

The event will highlight the research of five 91亚色 scholars, on topics ranging from healthy aged-care in long-term care settings to how human security provided a chart for assessing the impacts of oil and gas development in the northwestern Canadian Arctic. It will also delve into what elite athletes can tell us about maximizing health and changes in long-term care witnessed in Ontario over the years and more.

鈥淭丑别 Healthy Individuals, Healthy Communities and Global Health celebration highlights the range and diversity of health research at 91亚色 and its connections to other disciplines including science and environmental studies research. It also gives a glimpse into the health research taking place on both the Keele and Glendon campuses,鈥� said Robert Hach茅, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淎ll 91亚色 students, staff and faculty are invited to attend.鈥�

The celebration will take place from 2 to 4pm in the Life Sciences Building Lobby.听The event will feature mini-research byte presentations followed by Q&As from the audience.

Featured presenters will include: Professor Joe Baker of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health; Professor Dawn Bazely of the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, who is also the director of the Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability; Professor Martin Bunch, associate dean research of the Faculty of Environmental Studies; Professor Tamara Daly of the School of Health Policy & Management, Faculty of Health; and Professor Guy Bernard Proulx, CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health, of the Department of Psychology, Glendon College.

The event will be available for .

Martin Bunch: Ecohealth: Using complexity science to inform an adaptive ecosystem approach to environment and health in informal settlements in Chennai, India
Informal settlements (鈥渟lums鈥� in Asian and United Nations parlance) are characterized by extremely poor living conditions. They are located on marginal and often dangerous sites; lack urban amenities; housing is dense and substandard; residents almost always lack tenure and are subject to eviction; and they are the location of poor, vulnerable and marginalized populations. Unfortunately, attempts to address problems of slums demonstrate that slum settlements are resilient and resistant to change. 听In May 2004 a Canadian and Indian project team began working with NGOs and two community partners to explore the efficacy of applying an adaptive ecosystem approach, which draws upon complexity theory and resilience thinking, to environment and health in those communities. Bunch will discuss how the perspective of complexity and self-organization helped to understand why these communities can be so perversely resilient, and identify key relationships and processes that should be either undermined or promoted to encourage this social-ecological system to evolve to more desirable configurations.

Tamara Daly

Tamara Daly: Healthy Public Policy for Living and Working in Long-term Care
Daly will discuss how an ethos of care must inform public debate about healthy aged care, drawing on her local and international research in long-term care settings. She will highlight some challenges in long-term care settings and raise questions about how to create healthy care communities that include a focus on the needs of residents, families and workers.

Dawn Bazely

Dawn Bazely: Navigating the waters of transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary collaboration
Bazely鈥檚 presentation will explore how human security provided a chart for assessing the impacts of oil and gas development in the northwestern Canadian Arctic. 听She will also discuss how human security has provided a map for supporting local peoples,听both in Canada听and elsewhere in the world, who are facing the consequences of climate change. Her presentation will briefly highlight the lessons learned and exported from the IPY GAPS project: International Polar Year, Gas, Arctic Peoples and Security (2006-11).

Joe Baker

Joe Baker: Optimal function and optimal health: What elite athletes can tell us about maximizing health
Elite athletes can inform our understanding of the limits of human potential, which may have particular relevance for older adults. Masters athletes typically show exceptional maintenance of cognitive and physical function compared to the normal aging population and challenge our notions of what older adults are capable of doing.

Guy Proulx

Guy Proulx: 听The Shifting Borders of Cognitive Aging
The field of cognitive aging is changing rapidly. Half of Canadians born in 2012 can expect to live to 100 years and the hope is that their 鈥渉ealth expectancy鈥� could be as long. The presentation will contrast changes in long term care witnessed in Ontario the last decades and the need for more applied research addressing the wide variability within the normal aging population.

Please .

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Debra Pepler

Creating Healthy Relationships to Prevent Bullying: Get the Tools to Take Action will take place June 19 at the Chestnut Conference Centre, 89 Chestnut St. in Toronto.

Wendy Craig

PREVNet (Promoting Relationships Eliminating Violence), a national network of 60 Canadian researchers from 27 universities and 50 national child and youth serving organizations, is led by 91亚色 psychology Professor Debra Pepler and Queen鈥檚 University Professor Wendy Craig (MA 鈥�89, PhD 鈥�93), two of Canada鈥檚 experts in the field of bullying.

Coordinator of at the Toronto District School Board, Ken Jeffers, will deliver the keynote address, 鈥淪ex, Gender and Schools Oh My!鈥�. A series of workshops will follow, where researchers, counsellors, parents, volunteers, youth and anyone else interested in bullying prevention will learn about the latest knowledge and gain practical tips regarding bullying from researchers and national community organizations.

Ken Jeffers

In the first workshop, Pepler will talk about ways to build healthy relationships with children and youth in any setting. Research is beginning to show how absolutely essential healthy relationships are for healthy development, she says. From the study of genetics at a cellular level through to studies of societal factors, clear links are emerging between the quality of children鈥檚 relationship experiences and their healthy development.

Professor of the University of Illinois will look at bullying and sexual harassment prevention and intervention among middle and high school students. In this talk, research will be presented to illustrate the prevalence and relations among bullying, homophobic teasing and sexual harassment among early adolescents. Masculinity and restricted gender expression also appear to be important factors contributing to these phenomena among adolescents.

Dorothy Espelage

A growing body of recent research, however, has documented the importance of social and emotional learning as critical to the creation of safe and caring learning environments, and ultimately as a foundation for academic success. Professor of the University of British Columbia will look at the importance of fostering social and emotional learning in schools.

Shelley Hymel

Criminal justice Professor of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will discuss the challenges of cyberbullying, what parents and educators need to know about how youth use and misuse technology to harm their peers, and outline strategies for preventing and responding to cyberbullying.

Justin Patchin

Craig, along with Professor David Smith of the University of Ottawa, will talk about how organizations can choose a bully prevention program. Shelley Cardinal, aboriginal consultant and national manager of Walking the Prevention Circle at the Canadian Red Cross, and Claire Crooks, a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health鈥檚 Centre for Prevention Science, will look at engaging aboriginal communities and youth in violence prevention.

For more information, including a complete list of , visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Bartlett identified a gap in the online realm, arguing that a need existed for a digital 鈥渘ature calendar鈥�. He is currently constructing a collection of 365 short prose pieces 鈥� one piece for each day of the year 鈥� which he is posting to Facebook where hopes to include something of the 鈥渘atural鈥� world into the social networking sphere.

Right: From left, poets and keynote speakers听Brian Bartlett, Armand Garnet Ruffi听and Rita Wong听discuss issues in contemporary environmental literature

The purpose of the Green Words/Green Worlds: Environmental Poetry & Environmental Politics conference, which took place at Toronto鈥檚 Gladstone Hotel in late October, was to examine the relationship between literature and environmental politics in Canada. A keynote panel featuring prominent Canadian poets Bartlett, Armand Garnet Ruffo and Rita Wong opened the conference presented by the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES).

FES Professor Cate Sandilands, the Canada Research Chair for Sustainability & Culture, introduced the three speakers. Making reference to Bartlett鈥檚 essay, Sandilands addressed the tension between 鈥渟avouring and saving the world.鈥� This idea became a unifying thread amongst the three speakers, who offered additional insights on environmental literature today.

Bartlett recounted the challenges of mastering the 420 character limit for Facebook wallposts. He read a selection of his Facebook poetry to the audience and addressed the feeling of being torn between sensuous desires for the earth and a motivation to 鈥渟ave the world鈥�. This tension between desire and concern, he noted, could be fused into a unified way of looking at the environment through literature. Grounding one鈥檚 passion for the earth in the earth itself was a concept that Bartlett emphasized throughout his presentation.

Left: A member of the audience addresses the speakers during the keynote Q&A period at the Gladstone Hotel

Native Canadian poet Armand Garnet Ruffo also spoke, drawing attention to the听Anishinabe land that the Gladstone Hotel was built upon. This acknowledgement, later echoed by Wong, served to remind the audience of the choice involved in deciding which stories one shares, and ultimately sustains. The dominant narrative portrays the Gladstone Hotel being situated on private property, while Ruffo鈥檚 鈥渁lternate narrative鈥� frames the venue as residing on Mississauga Anishinabe soil.

鈥淪o much of our lives are spent in narrative鈥e use narrative to explain our existence and our place in the world,鈥� Ruffo pointed out. He stated that stories are now more important than ever, as a new story can change the way one approaches the environment. Ruffo called for more stories to encourage empathy, suggesting that one should approach a narrative by asking: 鈥渋s this a story for me?鈥�

Wong, whose environmental justice poetry has been considered a kind of literary activism, seeks to uncover environmental racism rooted in fact, exploring these issues through her poetry.

Central to Wong鈥檚 presentation was an exploration of water as a metaphor and a material reality that connects people. Those who live downstream, for example, know something of those upstream. Wong argued that watersheds can teach a lot about our environment and communities, as they are 鈥渢o the land what the voice is to the body.鈥� She coined this idea as 鈥渨atershed wisdom鈥�.

The panel concluded with a Q&A period and a discussion of how we embrace the more challenging stories of today鈥檚 environment. Wong urged that people find joy in what they do, suggesting that writers should embrace both the beauty and the despair inherent to environmental stories. Ruffo concluded, 鈥淲e are tearing up the earth and the tar sands because we have told ourselves the wrong stories鈥e have told ourselves that oil is more important than blood.鈥� Creating literature mindful of the environmental context, to correct these 鈥渨rong stories鈥�, was a strategy听that the keynote speakers promoted throughout the evening.

Submitted to YFile by Mike Young, FES communications graduate assistant

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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All talks, unless otherwise specified, take place in the McLaughlin Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, at noon. The talks are free and open to anyone in the 91亚色 community.

罢辞诲补测,听Ian Greene (left), master of McLaughlin College, will speak about his volunteer activities in Ethiopia for a Canadian nonprofit organization that helps at-risk children obtain adequate food, shelter and an education so that they can go to school, then university, and then contribute to Ethiopia鈥檚 rejuvenation. Find out what you can do to contribute.On听Thursday Sept.听22,听L. H. Gummi justice of the high court of Nigeria along with听several other high court judge, will speak on the differences and similarities between the Nigerian court and the Supreme Court of Canada, which was a model for the Nigerian High Court when it was established.听

Lieutenant-General (Ret鈥檇) George Macdonald (right), the former vice-chief of the Canadian Defence staff,听will speak on Sept. 23 about the听current challenges facing the Canadian Forces as they transition from a combat mission in Afghanistan, deal with the pressures of reduced government funding, and try to manage within a very cumbersome procurement system. Macdonald, a Fellow of McLaughlin College, spent 38 years in the Canadian Forces, retiring in 2004 after three years as the vice chief of the defence staff. He began his military career as a fighter pilot and has occupied staff and command positions at several levels. He has served with NATO in Germany and Norway, and with NORAD in Canada and at Colorado Springs in the US. He currently works as a consultant in defence and security issues in Ottawa.

On听Tuesday, Oct. 25, Sandra Vides Martinez,听a senior student in International Development Studies and听in the Faculty of Education at 91亚色, will compare her experiences of working with youth in a Peruvian orphanage and her experiences of working with youth in Toronto. She will be facilitating discussions surrounding the importance of breaking down biases when working with at-risk youth in marginalized communities in conjunction with developing programs that are based on participatory development and capacity building.听Vides Martinez听will draw on her experiences in working with communities in Toronto as well as her work with McLaughlin College's Human Rights, Participatory Growth and Poverty Eradication Project.听

Gregory Tardi, legal counsel to the House of Commons, will speak on Monday, Oct. 31 about听鈥淎ccountability to Law as an Aspect of Democracy.鈥�

Then on Thursday, Nov. 24, Tahera Aurban-Ali, who is a 91亚色 student and a Canadian who was听born in Afghanistan, will provide her passionate analysis of the situation in Afghanistan. She argues that allied (including Canadian) intervention has done a lot of good to promote human rights, but we should be wary of compromises made with the Taliban.

On Wednesday, Nov. 30,听James Sheptycki (right), a professor of criminology at 91亚色, will speak about his 20-year career researching transnational crime and policing. This talk coincides with the publication of two new books Transnational Crime and Policing' (Ashgate, 2011) and Global Policing, co-authored with Ben Bowling, professor of criminology at King's College, London (Sage, 2011). In his talk, Sheptycki will reflect upon the role of the researcher the study of "the police" and how this is effected by "globalization".

A听light lunch is served at noon and the talks usually begin at about 12:15pm, followed by a question-and-answer session. Each talk usually finishes shortly after 1pm.

For information on subsequent lunch talk schedules, visit the McLaughlin College website.

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Right: A cooperatively owned high-rise building in Halle听has a market at its base听with three identical abandoned buildings behind it. Photo by Josh Neubauer

This summer, 13 master鈥檚 students from 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Environmental Studies travelled to Berlin and Leipzig to participate in a graduate urban planning course, co-taught by a team of 91亚色 faculty members under the directorship of environmental studies Professor Ute Lehrer and urban studies coordinator Douglas Young, as well as CITY postdoctoral fellow Will Poppe. The students learned first-hand how German planners are responding to large-scale population decline in urbanized areas.

鈥淭his workshop gave me the opportunity to go to Europe for the first time, and Berlin simply blew me away,鈥� says Nishanthan Balasubramaniam, a student in the Masters of Environmental Studies (MES) Planning Program. 鈥淚 learned a lot about German planning and culture. This course abroad was an unforgettable experience.鈥�

From June 24 to July 9, the students spoke with urban researchers, local planners, activists and residents. Through these conversations, along with many hours of exploring Leipzig, Berlin and Halle-Neustadt on foot and by bike, and taking hundreds of photographs, the students pieced together a picture of how East German cities are working to adapt to their shrinking populations and socio-economic challenges, and what these changes have meant for the everyday lives of residents.

Left: 91亚色 planning students consult a map of Halle-Neustadt with local planners. Photo by Josh Neubauer

The students learned that many of the biggest changes are taking place in neighbourhoods that are visibly similar to parts of Toronto 鈥� demolitions are taking place in the clusters of pre-fabricated apartment towers on the edges of the city. These communities, like Toronto鈥檚 high-rise neighbourhoods, are often stigmatized even though many of their residents are relatively content. MES planning student Gwen Potter says residents are concerned about the way their community has been targeted for demolition. 鈥淔rom our conversations with local residents, we heard about their deep pride in their community,鈥� says Potter.听

Despite the challenges that population decline has created for residents and planners, it has also produced unexpected benefits in communities like Gr眉nau. With fewer apartment blocks, there are now more open spaces, and the community is surrounded by lush meadows and forests. Throughout Leipzig, residents are making the best of the shrinking population by turning demolition sites into new green spaces. As they walked and biked through these neighbourhoods, the 91亚色 planning students were struck by how differently plants and trees were integrated in the community than in Toronto鈥檚 manicured neighbourhoods. 鈥淚 was introduced to a new way of discussing the urban landscape and the importance of urban ecology,鈥� says MES planning student Christine Furtado, who sees the benefits of this practice.

For the students, the course provided an important international perspective where they learned about the contradictions of new developments at the periphery at the same time that population decline is occurring in the core city. With continued sprawl and decreasing populations, planners in many German cities now work with community members, property owners and developers to shape their urban spaces with a focus on quality rather than quantity. The students indicated they were inspired by the innovative approaches to community building that have emerged as a result of these collaborations and hope to carry these lessons into their future planning work in Canada.

Right: Population loss leaves room for an abundance of green space in Gr眉nau, Leipzig.听Photo by Josh Neubauer

During the course, the students also had the opportunity to learn about the challenges of suburban neighbourhoods and outlying tower districts all over the world. They observed a two-day conference on suburban governance organized as part of 91亚色鈥檚 Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded major collaborative research initiative (MCRI) 鈥� Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land & Infrastructure in the 21st Century, which brought together international researchers studying suburbanization processes around the world. The direct link between the themes of the workshop and the conference were an essential component of the learning experience in Leipzig.

As Lehrer says, 鈥淭his course had a different approach than your normal planning workshop because it was trying to make a regular course part of an international research project. This innovative teaching approach allows both students and researchers to learn from each other in ways that are not possible in a regular classroom. It was a huge success and we hope to replicate it by taking students to Montpellier, France, next year and to Shanghai in 2014.鈥�

Left: Large apartment buildings being demolished in the Gr眉nau neighbourhood in outer Leipzig. Photo by Josh Neubauer

The 91亚色 students also shared findings and research interests with a group of Polish architecture and sociology students conducting their own analysis of the Leipzig-Gr眉nau housing estate, which added another important international dimension.

The MES students are now producing a final report, aimed at planners and policy-makers in Toronto and the GTA, that will draw on their research in Germany to make recommendations for how Toronto鈥檚 tower neighbourhoods might be transformed.

This graduate course was a component of the Global Suburbanisms project based at 91亚色鈥檚 CITY Institute under the direction of Professor Roger Keil. The course was made possible with generous financial support of 91亚色 International and the German Academic Exchange Service and benefited from institutional, academic and personal support of Professor Sigrun Kabisch and Professor Dieter Rink, as well as other colleagues from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, a partner in 91亚色鈥檚 Global Suburbanisms project.

By 91亚色 MES students Gwen Potter and Josh Neubauer, who travelled to Germany this summer

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