The Environmental Cooperation and Israel-Palestinian Peace event will take place March 15 at 1pm at 280A 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus.

Environmental cooperation has been much-lauded as a force of peace in the Middle East and has been leveraged in support of Track I peacemaking processes between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It has been pursued as a practice of peace-building, valued for its ability to foster partnership-building, cooperation, identity change and sustainability. Still, the Israel-Palestinian conflict persists, even manifesting through cooperative environmental relations.

�ʲ��Ա���������ٲ��� (right), an international development, peace-building and dialogue researcher-practitioner, and��Stuart Schoenfeld (left), chair of the Department of Sociology��at 91��ɫ’s Glendon College, will present and discuss the issue. Drawing on their direct experience of working with practitioners, governments and stakeholders in the Middle East, they will critically examine assumptions and practices of environmental cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians. Abitbol and Schoenfeld co-chaired the AVOW initiative (Adaptive Visions of Water in the Middle East), hosted at IRIS from��2007-2009.

Abitbol specializes in hydropolitical issues, with a particular interest in Israeli-Palestinian relations. A Chevening Scholar and associate Fellow at IRIS, he is pursuing a PhD in peace studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, while teaching university courses at the nexus of environment and peace. As a consultant, he recently conducted the Conflict and Peace Effects Study of the Israel-Palestinian Authority-Jordan-World Bank "Red Sea Dead Sea Conveyance" initiative.

Schoenfeld's research on regional environmentalism in the Middle East began in the late 1990s. A network of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians began to work towards a common understanding of issues of water, energy, waste, transportation, consumption, biodiversity and sustainable development, and to fashion a way of turning that common understanding into one of the elements for peace and human security in the region.

The project continues to investigate this network and other regional frameworks. The project has produced publications on transboundary environmental networks, environmental peace building, approaches to regional environmental governance and the role of empathy in environmental peace-building.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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At��the 2011 Design Exchange Awards, a national competition focusing on the best in Canadian interior design, the Learning Commons received an honourable mention in the commercial category. The awards were announced in late November at a gala event in Toronto.��91��ɫ's��Learning Commons was one of only two��postsecondary spaces in Canada to receive such recognition in the 2011 competition.

For Mark Robertson (right), associate University librarian, the��kudos are particularly meaningful. "This award reflects the extraordinary team effort between the architect, library staff and Campus Services & Business Operations to make this space a reality," said Robertson. "This affirms the innovative nature of the Learning Commons��and our vision for what it should be."

The renovations have been a huge hit with students, said Robertson, noting that the Learning Commons��affirms the team’s��desire to create��a true student-centred space that is both innovative and functional.

"We [the team] took some risks with the design and approach to planning the space," he said. "What I find really interesting is that students understand the principle of the space and how it is meant to be used. When I talk��to students using the Learning Commons,��they intuitively understand the concept of the new space and they miror back to me the intent of the design.��For many, it is a home base in a large institution and it is playing a huge role in enhancing their learning."

The Scott Learning Commons, which officially opened in October 2010, was an ambitious undertaking by 91��ɫ to transform some 1,600 square metres of space located on the��second floor of the Scott Library into a pedagogical showcase highlighting the shift from teacher-focused learning to social learning.

Above: 91��ɫ students take full advantage of the Scott Learning Commons Collaboratory, a group workspace

The creation of the space involved renovating a 40-year-old building to improve not only how the space is used, but also reducing its energy footprint. This meant revisiting the��perceptions of a library as a quiet-only space and reinventing the library into a dynamic, energizing space that is responsive to students’ needs for group research and learning.

The project employs a maximum re-use strategy, respecting and enhancing the original exposed concrete library building. It reinvigorated the existing facility with universal design principals, especially intuitive accessibility, flexibility and natural daylight, while significantly reducing electric lighting. It is constructed from natural products and durable, low-emission materials.

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Above: The Hill, part of��the Collaboratory, offers a terraced seating area where students can plug in and stretch out

Flexibility was key to how the space was re-imagined by the design firm Brock James and Levitt Goodman Architects, who successfully translated the 91��ɫ Libraries staff's vision into the award-winning space. The learning-focused space takes into account the diversity of learning styles and provides students with the options they need to be successful in their academic quests. The space is divided into zones based on function, activities and noise levels. Soft seating, quiet study, group work booths and study tables offer something for everyone. The renovation added 340 additional seats for students, a key goal of the project.

Planning��is underway for the second phase of the Scott Learning Commons, said Robertson. Subsequent renovations will include:

• Two “smart” classrooms equipped with up-to-date multimedia technologies to support learning.
• More areas for computing.
• An airy quiet study room with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Many of the ideas for the Learning Commons were the result of consultations with students, said�� Robertson.��He, together with Professor Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt, co-chaired a committee of faculty, librarians, staff and students who developed and refined the concepts and programming for the Learning Commons.

"Our approach is generating a lot of buzz," said Robertson, who has been fielding calls from��institutions��as far away as Hong Kong and the Middle East. He noted that public libraries from across Canada have also expressed an��interest in seeing the space.

To learn more about the Scott Learning Commons at 91��ɫ, see��YFile, March 1, 2010 and March 22, 2010, or visit the website.

More about the Design Exchange Awards

Now in its 20th year, the annual competition celebrates the best in��architecture, interior design, industrial design, landscape architecture, urban design, visual communications and fashion. The winning projects were judged based on their innovative approach to creating a solution, sustainability, acessibility, esthetics and function. The Design Exchange is a design centre and museum with a mandate to promote the value of design.����

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Director Vikki Anderson (left),��of Toronto’s DVxT Theatre Company, commissioned playwright and actor Rick Roberts to rework this tragicomic roller coaster ride on the subject of relationships. Witness the rich behaving badly Nov. 6 to 12 in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film & Theatre at 91��ɫ.

Lady Brute, the titular wife, is trapped in a loveless marriage with a beastly, gambling, drunken oaf. Should she leave? Should she take a lover? The sharp wit and farcical situations notwithstanding, the play asks a serious question: What to do about an unsuccessful marriage in a society where divorce is impossible.

Keeping the original 17th-century setting and the language of the day, the adaptation reorganizes some of the play’s structure and adds depth to a number of the characters.

Right: John Vanbrugh

"I chose The Provok’d Wife for the intelligence of Vanbrugh’s writing, his contemporary ideas about marriage and his wonderful parts for women," says Anderson. "Rick Roberts was a natural to approach for this project, as he showed an amazing facility with the language and style of the period in DVxT workshops leading up to this creation.

"Restoration comedies are plays about young people and their problems with love and money as they make their way in the world," she says. "So Theatre @ 91��ɫ is a perfect fit, giving rising young performers the opportunity to bring their energy, vitality and passion to these characters."

An award-winning theatre director, designer and producer, Anderson is the founding artistic director of DVxT Theatre Company. To date, her company has earned 12 Dora Awards and 19 nominations. Anderson’s work for DVxT includes the multi-award-winning production of Ibsen’s��A Doll's House, adapted by John Murrell, the acclaimed Soulpepper production of Happy Days starring Martha Burns, and most recently, a site-specific production of The Turn of the Screw at the Campbell House Museum. She is the associate director of The Misanthrope at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival this season.

Anderson directs a lively young cast drawn from the Undergraduate Acting Conservatory in 91��ɫ’s Department of Theatre. A talented creative team of undergraduates is handling all aspects of the production design and execution.

Each year, Theatre @ 91��ɫ mounts a challenging and entertaining slate of plays, featuring some of Canada's most promising performance and production talent. Established in the Department of Theatre at 91��ɫ in 1969, it has been a springboard for a generation of outstanding Canadian theatre artists. Theatre @ 91��ɫ alumni include stage and screen actors Rachel McAdams, Thom Marriott, Tamara Bernier, Patrick Galligan, Melody Johnson, Deborah Hay, Maurice Dean Wint and Christine Horne; playwrights Djanet Sears and Diane Flacks; and directors Richard Rose and Jillian Keiley.

The play previews Nov. 6 and 7 at 7:30pm, opens Nov. 8 and runs until Nov. 12. Performances are 7:30pm nightly, plus matinees Nov. 9 and 11 at 1pm. Tickets are $17, students and seniors $12. Preview tickets are $5.

For tickets, contact the Box Office at 416-736-5888.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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