Jennifer Foster

“We are eager to support the development of initiatives that will help continue to build the recognition of the University as a Canadian leader in sustainability research,” said Foster. “Members of the 91��ɫ community are invited to submit expressions of interest to join the Task Force on Sustainability Research as we work together to continue to build and strengthen this important area of research at 91��ɫ.”

The mandate of the Task Force on Sustainability Research is to:

• provide feedback and recommendations to help strengthen and advance the concentration of sustainability research at 91��ɫ;
• provide strategic advice that represents broader community interests and becomes a conduit for action within the community; and,
• provide feedback and recommendations through a final report that will be released to the 91��ɫ community to stimulate engagement and action.

The Office of the VPRI invites expressions of interest from those considering volunteering to join the task force. on Sustainability Research. View the Task Force Terms of Reference, or for more information, contact Barbara Edwards, senior policy adviser, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation.

The Task Force on Sustainability Research anticipates meeting approximately eight times between September 2014 and April 2015.

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Robert Haché

“I am delighted that Professor Foster has accepted the opportunity to chair the Task Force on Sustainability Research. At 91��ɫ, we are eager to support the development of initiatives that will help continue to build the recognition of the University as a Canadian leader in sustainability research," said Haché.

Jennifer Foster

Foster is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners-Ontario Professional Planners' Institute and the coordinator of 91��ɫ's Urban Ecologies Program. Her research focuses on urban planning, urban environmental justice, habitat creation and novel ecologies, and environmental aesthetics. Recent major research projects include From Rubble to Refuge (2008-2012, with Professor Anders Sandberg) and (2010-2013, with Professors Janine Marchessault and Chloë Brushwood Rose).

“The goal of the Task Force on Sustainability Research is to engage the broader 91��ɫ sustainability research community to leverage collegial expertise in soliciting advice and ideas to be used in the development of recommendations. These recommendations will guide the development of strategic initiatives to enhance the success and recognition of 91��ɫ’s researchers in this important area of research leadership for 91��ɫ,” said Haché. “This initiative is particularly timely with the recent launch of the Canada First Research Excellence Fund,” a new federal program to promote international research leadership for Canadian universities.

The mandate of the Taskforce on Sustainability Research is to:

• provide feedback and recommendations to help strengthen and advance the concentration of sustainability research at 91��ɫ;
• provide strategic advice that represents broader community interests and becomes a conduit for action within the community; and
• provide feedback and recommendations through a final report that will be released to the 91��ɫ community to stimulate engagement and action.

The Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) invites expressions of interest from those considering volunteering to join the task force. on Sustainability Research.

View the Task Force terms of reference��or for more information, contact Barbara Edwards, senior policy adviser, Office of the VPRI.

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This project will take place on Thursday, Aug. 23, from 8:30am (registration) to 4:30pm at 0001 TEL Building, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event, but participants are asked to contribute to a celebratory lunch by either bringing a potluck contribution or a Pay What You Can donation ($5 to $10 suggested). Advance registration is also necessary as the Summer Institute is almost full. To register, .

The opening panel with artists and educators , Damian Adjohda and 91��ɫ FES Professor Sarah Flicker will discuss how art-making processes strengthen identity, connect community members and fuel resistance.

Left: Participants create art together��at least year's Summer Institute

The morning workshops will run from 10:30am to 12:30pm with afternoon workshops from 2 to 4pm. The following is the list of workshops:

Exploring Ecology and the More-Than-Human World through ceremony and Indigenous story-telling with Tanya Chung Tiam Fook will teach participants about Indigenous ways of being present with and knowing the land, non-human beings and sacred ecology through environmental ethics, story-telling, human-animal relationships and shamanistic traditions in South America.

The Wonder of the Book looking at art, equity and environmental education through ’zine-making, with storyteller, puppeteer and bookbinder Chris Cavanagh, will be a hands-on workshop on how to make ’zines.

Hands and Eyes and Marks on Paper: An Introductory Practical Workshop on Drawing and Painting Nature (Note: Part II of this workshop continues in the afternoon) will be led by FES Professor . No previous art training is required for this full-day workshop.

In Audio Landscapes: Exploring Podcasting and Pedagogy with CoHearence, FES PhD students Amanda diBattista and Andrew Mark, coordinators of CoHearance, a podcast series that explores the intersections of culture, history and the environment (see YFile, Feb. 8), will discuss the potential for podcasting to engage students and communities in environmental conversations.

SonicWalk with , a Toronto-based media/performance artist and curator and founder of the performance company Outerregion, will have participants visiting familiar places for the first time and embracing the strange and wonderful worlds hiding in plain view.

Talking and Testifying: Writing History, Rocking Boats with performer, poet and FES Professor will offer participants hands-on ways to gather testimonies, edit and share them.

Telling Food and Eating Stories: Digital Storytelling for Food Justice with 91��ɫ Professor will focus on storytelling around food and food justice. After viewing some digital stories, participants will have the opportunity to create a story with one photograph that speaks to their experiences.

The collaborative Summer Institute brings together teachers, educators, community members, and artists to explore ways of teaching and learning, giving attention to the inter-relationships of art, environmental education and equitable social change.

For more information, visit the website or email Maggie Hutcheson, Summer Institute coordinator, at reclaimingculture2012@gmail.com.

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

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Las Nubes: Conservation in the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica

“Las Nubes is Spanish for ‘the clouds’, and Las Nubes Biological Reserve is a place where the opportunity for discovery is as limitless as the sky,” write its authors, 91��ɫ environmental studies PhD candidate Chris Saker (MES ’09) and Ana Maria Martinez (MES ’10), a PhD candidate in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education.

Organic shade-grown coffee beans. All photos by Brett Cole

Las Nubes: Conservation in the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica (Rainforest Editions), available through the 91��ɫ Bookstore, is dedicated to the memory of the late 91��ɫ environmental studies Professor Howard Daugherty.

Golden-hooded Tanager

“The book is intended to raise awareness of the natural beauty of this ecosystem and the research, teaching and outreach programs conducted at Las Nubes,” says Barbara Rahder, former dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES). “It is also a fundraising project for FES and the Fisher Fund.”

But it is also what Rahder calls “a tribute to the years Professor Howard Daugherty spent developing our educational and research programs at Las Nubes.” Daugherty first conceived of the book as a way of showcasing the program's accomplishments, and the reserve itself, as well as promoting conservation. He spent some two years on the book, hand picking the photos from the thousands that had been taken, and helping to fashion the storyline. After his death, the work was continued by his colleagues, students and friends.

Laughing Falcons

The book contains 200 photographs by nature photographer Brett Cole, of everything colourful, strange and wonderful that thrives and fights for life amid the towering rainforests��–��from birds, such as the Golden-hooded Tanager and flowers like the Apostle’s Iris, to the Morpho butterfly, a caterpillar dotted with parasites, and spiders and shiny-backed beetles.

Cole was commissioned by FES in 2007 “to capture the fragile, but diverse ecosystem at Las Nubes,” says Rahder. And capture it he did, showing a glimpse of the rich diversity of the 124 hectares of protected rainforest on the Pacific slopes of the Talamanca Mountains in southern Costa Rica. It was this piece of rainforest that was donated to 91��ɫ by Dr. M.M. (Woody) Fisher in 1998.

It’s not only an essential refuge for tropical biodiversity, but a place where students and researchers from 91��ɫ’s FES, as well as other academic institutions, go to learn and conduct research in tropical conservation, sustainable development and biodiversity, while working with local communities.

Apostle's Iris

“Hundreds of our undergraduate and graduate students have been able to do fieldwork at Las Nubes. 91��ɫ is committed to social justice and that is embodied in our fair trade Las Nubes coffee, which is grown by local farmers in shaded coffee farms,” says Rahder.

Orchard spider

All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Fisher Fund in Neo-Tropical Conservation, Faculty of Environmental Studies, 91��ɫ, to support student and faculty research at Las Nubes.

Order single copies through the or by contacting Steve Glassman, bookstore director, at glassman@yorku.ca or ext. 33018.

For more photos, visit the at the bottom of the .

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

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In the fall, the 91��ɫ community discussed and debated the political relevance and literary qualities of Michael Crummey’s Galore as the winning book in FES Reads! Next Tuesday, the author will read and discuss his own book.

Galore and Beyond: A Reading and Discussion will take place Feb. 14, from 12:45 to 2pm, at 140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building, Keele campus. The event is hosted by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES).

A discussion of Galore at the��FES Reads! event

A novelist, poet and short-story author, Crummey will also read from his latest works of poetry. In addition to Galore (Random House, 2009), a family saga and love story spanning two centuries in��remote and isolated rural Newfoundland, he is the author of the novels The Wreckage (2005) and River Thieves (2000). Crummey’s poetry collections include Went With (2007) and Emergency Roadside Assistance (2001).

He won the inaugural Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry and the Writer’s Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Poetry. Having grown up in Newfoundland mining towns, much of Crummey’s work takes in the characters, nuances and essence of his birth place. Galore begins in Paradise Deep, on the coast of Newfoundland, as��the body of a man is sliced from the belly of a beached whale.

At FES Reads! Part II, a collective discussion about Galore was��led by FES Professors Gail Fraser, Tim Leduc and Cate Sandilands. They were interested in people’s personal responses to the book, how the novel spoke to them, if it did, and how might it shine new light on their work in FES.

For more information, visit the FES website.

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

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Environmental studies PhD candidate Andrew Mark knows what’s it’s like to have a long commute to campus, but he tries to use this time productively by thinking about and listening to podcasts.

In fact, he likes podcasts so much, he and a fellow student have created a podcast series he hopes other 91��ɫ commuters will find intriguing and thought-provoking.

This week, Mark and Amanda Di Battista, also an environmental studies PhD candidate at 91��ɫ, will launch CoHearence, a new podcast series exploring the connections between the environment and history and culture.

The first episode will explore mourning,��loss and the environment��

On Thursday, Feb. 9, 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) will host a screening and discussion based on the first episode of CoHearence as part of the FES Lecture Series at 12:45pm at 141 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies building. Mark and Di Battista, along with other participants from the episode, will be on hand for a Q&A period.

Funded by (Network in Canadian History & Environment) and the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), CoHearence is a six-part, monthly audio program free to the general public. Part one of the pilot podcast is “Melancholy, Mourning and Environmental Thought: Making Loss the Centre” and it looks at the loss involved in today’s changing environment.

Cohearance will also look at protests and the environment

For anyone not familiar with podcasts, they are similar to radio broadcasts with a difference in the delivery system. Instead of tuning in via radio, listeners download episodes digitally and listen to them through a computer or personal media device, such as an iPod or cellphone. “We think [podcasting] is ideally suited to talking about complex environmental issues,” says Di Battista. Mark agrees, saying “We hope this medium can create a new venue for information dissemination, beyond the written word, the lecture, the conference or an advising session.”

Di Battista says her goal in creating CoHearence is to “facilitate interesting discussion about the relationship between culture and environment. We work really hard to make each episode interesting both to those within the academy and the general public.”

Mark hopes the project will also reach an audience outside of the University. “Our primary objective is to improve the interdisciplinary discussion happening within our Faculty. We can [also] create narratives that are engaging to people outside of our community. For example, not only does our Faculty have theoretical ideas about the G20 protests, but we also have lived knowledge of those events.”

Each podcast episode will highlight current FES research. Di Battista says the reason for choosing melancholy and mourning as the topic for the first podcast is that “in the wake of the huge amount of environmental loss we talk, teach and learn about each day here in [FES], thinking about the ways that we might deal with the grief and anger that come out of those experiences seemed like a great place to start.”

Subsequent episodes will address a range of topics, including food justice, protest and resistance, and even highlights from the held last October at the Gladstone Hotel.

Di Battista and Mark hope that series will endure on the airwaves for a long time. To help ensure this, they are offering workshops on podcasting through the (CAP) program so future generations of FES students may continue to produce CoHearence. “People will discover and rediscover the series as a document of our times,” says Mark. “They might listen to our shows to hear about the topics or merely to come to know the people we interview better.”

CoHearence is available now on as a part of Sean Kheraj’s established podcast called Nature’s Past. It is also available on the website, which currently features a short preview video.

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

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Every Wednesday throughout the month, Vari Hall Rotunda will play host to displays and demonstrations featuring the University’s faculty and graduate researchers. Drop by to learn what they are up to.

"Research Month provides an opportunity for the 91��ɫ community to share knowledge and ideas as we celebrate excellence in research and scholarship at the University,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation. “We invite students, staff and faculty to drop by Vari Hall on Wednesdays in February to explore the many research projects and to learn more about the range of research activities at 91��ɫ.”

The Research Month index on 91��ɫ's Research website contains complete information about the researchers and research centres and institutes participating in the event.

Social sciences and humanities research – Feb. 1, from noon to 2pm.

Confirmed participants include:

• Assets Coming Together for Youth: Linking Research Policy and Action for Positive Youth Development
• Canadian Business Ethics Research Network
• The City Institute at 91��ɫ
• Professor , Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
• Professor ��– Children as Peacemakers
• The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
• The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migration of African Peoples
• , Department of Humanities, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
• The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies
• The 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research
• 91��ɫ Centre for Education and Community

Science and engineering research – Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 10am to 2pm.

Confirmed participants include:

• – Professor , Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
• The Faculty of Environmental Studies
• IRIS
• Four Grad students from Professor 's lab, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science��& Engineering
• Professor , Department of Earth & Space Science��& Engineering, Faculty of Science��& Engineering
• Professor , Department of Computer Science��& Engineering, Faculty of Science��& Engineering
• Professor Gunho Sohn, Department of Earth & Space Science��& Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor , Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty��of Science & Engineering

Health research displays will be showcased Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 10am to 2pm, and fine and performing arts research will be featured Wednesday, Feb. 29, from 10am to 2pm. Check back often for more information by clicking here.

Want to participate?

Do you have completed works, prototypes, technology or works in progress that you could demonstrate? Do you have graduate or undergraduate students working with you who could assist and help talk about the work? If you have other ideas, VPRI would love to hear them.

Interested faculty members or research centres should contact Arielle Zomer in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at ext. 21069 or azomer@yorku.ca. Note that space is limited and allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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The commissioner visited the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) on Dec. 2 to speak with students about energy conservation initiatives and to present his newly published report, . The report, submitted annually to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, was released only days before Miller’s visit to students in Fundamentals of Energy Efficiency, a fourth-year environmental studies class connected to the FES Sustainable Energy Initiative. In his visit, Miller shared a number of ideas on how government agencies, regulators, companies and the government could strengthen and support energy conservation.

Right: Gord Miller discusses strategies for the future of energy in Ontario with students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies

In his presentation, Miller noted that Ontario’s Smart Grid program “has not been well communicated to the public, and thus it is not understood.”

The Ontario Ministry of Energy describes the Smart Grid system as an “intelligent electricity infrastructure” using sensors, monitors, communications, automation and computers to “improve the flexibility, reliability and efficiency of the electricity system.” The Ministry website states the program will allow utilities to identify and repair outages more quickly, enable consumers to better manage and monitor their electricity usage and allow more renewable electricity generation, such as wind and solar power, to connect to the electricity grid. The switch to a Smart Grid, however, will require a series of integrated initiatives over a number of years.

Left: Gord Miller

Because of this, the program received criticism in the October 2011 provincial election, along with public resistance to the need for new meters to be installed on all homes and businesses. But Miller said, “People who are resistant to change, they state and retell a narrative to convince themselves and others of their case. You have to change that narrative and accumulate case studies where meters did not have an adverse effect.”

In addition, Miller identified another vital concern: “the absence of leadership at the systems level means there is not one single organization with an overall perspective who will ensure that this program succeeds.” Still he was optimistic, saying, “Energy conservation starts with smart metering, [which will allow us to] find out the waste in transmission in the system.”

Another conservation initiative that has had considerable criticism, said Miller, is (TOU) electricity pricing. TOU pricing breaks down electrical consumption into demand-based categories: on-peak (time of day when electrical demand is highest), mid-peak (demand is moderate) and off-peak (demand is lowest). Consumers pay higher rates for electricity consumed during higher demand periods. According to the Ontario Energy Board, the TOU plan was developed “to provide stable and predictable electricity pricing, which ensures the price consumers pay for electricity better reflects the actual cost of producing the electricity.”

Right: Several students parted the event with expanded minds as well as pockets, having received USB keys from the commissioner

Miller thinks the negative media and public response towards the plan was overblown. “TOU pricing was viewed as a ‘tax’,” he said, as if to suggest that “old people would have to do laundry in the middle of the night.”��He said peak demand determines the amount of energy which power plants must generate. He further suggested that if Ontarians could lower their peak consumption, fewer power plants would be required in the future, having a direct environmental impact.

Miller, excited about his upcoming climate change report, also spoke about transportation, road pricing and electric vehicles. He promised this report would include further analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, along with a necessary update on the science of climate change.

“Last year’s report was very critical of the government's actions [on climate change]. Since then, the programs have fallen apart,” he said, adding that Ontario won't be able to meet its��. But he said, “If there’s a concerted, sincere effort, I won’t judge everything negatively.”

Miller feels it is his job “to address the white elephants in the room,” tackling difficult subjects and getting closer to solutions in energy conservation. In sharing his insight and optimism with 91��ɫ’s environmental students, Miller says he hopes to strengthen the future in preserving Ontario’s environment.

Submitted by Imelda Nurwisah, FES communications graduate assistant

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

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The gift is the single largest corporate endowment supporting Environmental Studies Awards in Canada. More than 15 bachelor of environmental studies students will receive full tuition awards each year .

91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and Barbara Rahder, dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), announced the donation from HSBC Bank Canada at a special��event held at 91��ɫ's Keele campus.

“This is a great day for 91��ɫ, students, research and the environment,” said Shoukri. “With this single largest corporate gift to undergraduate environmental studies students in Canada, HSBC Bank Canada’s commitment creates a new, one-of-a-kind full tuition environmental scholarship, truly transforming environmental studies here at 91��ɫ and in Canada.”

��

Above: Event participants celebrate��the��$1-million endowed donation from HSBC Bank Canada establishing the HSBC Bank Canada Environmental Studies Awards at the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES).��Pictured (from left): Erica Ali, FES student; FES Dean Barbara Rahder; Linda Seymour, executive vice-president, commercial banking, and regional president, central and eastern Canada, HSBC Bank Canada; 91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri; FES student Mike Zhang.

The $1-million��donation from HSBC Bank Canada, to be paid over five years, will create the permanently endowed HSBC Bank Canada Environmental Studies Awards. The donation also triggers a $1-million��matching investment from the Ontario Trust for Student Support Program, creating a $2-million permanent endowment for undergraduate environmental studies students at 91��ɫ.

“HSBC believes that education is a fundamental building block for communities, which is why we fund scholarships and bursaries at postsecondary institutions across Canada – including right here at 91��ɫ,” said Linda Seymour, executive vice-president, commercial banking, and regional president, central and eastern Canada, HSBC Bank Canada. “We are very pleased that the HSBC Bank Canada Environmental Studies Awards will support more than 15 environmental studies students each year, allowing them to focus on their research, studies and contribution to the environment.” ��

The awards, equivalent to one year’s tuition, will be given to third- and fourth-year bachelor of environmental studies students who demonstrate academic achievement, community service and are in financial need.

“This is a transformational investment to 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies,” said Rahder. “These scholarships enable students to focus on their research, studies and contribution to the environment, lifting the stress of cost of going to university.”

Several dozen students, faculty and staff attended yesterday's announcement at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus. In addition to highlighting key projects and research currently taking place within the Faculty of Environmental Studies, students also shared their thoughts on the potential impact of these awards.

“As a student, tuition and other costs associated with a university education are always top of mind,” said Mike Zhang, a fourth-year student majoring in urban sustainability. “The new HSBC award will help relieve students like me from this financial worry so we can focus on our studies, take advantage of valuable internships and even come up with the next big idea to address environmental challenges."��

With��this announcement, HSBC Bank Canada has donated close to $2 million��to 91��ɫ over the past two decades. Previous donations have created six endowed scholarship funds at 91��ɫ, which have provided awards to 41 students to date.

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

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Raffles will��deliver a special guest lecture today titled, "Rocks, Stones & Other Vital Things" as part of the fourth annual lecture hosted by the Department of Anthropology at 91��ɫ. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Founders College Senior Common Room, 305 Founders College��at 4:30pm.

Right: Professor Hugh Raffles

Raffles will speak about his new ethnographic project that explores the lives of rocks and stones. There are currently two central problems that anthropologists face. The first��is familiar to anthropologists: What are the forms of life enacted by objects that, in the Western philosophical tradition, are commonly considered inanimate? The second, although related, may be less familiar: What can we learn from stones? Raffles explores these questions ethnographically, assuming that they are susceptible to empirical investigation. His research considers a limited set of cases, two of which are introduced in this talk: the ancient monuments of the British Isles and the Chinese "scholar's rocks".

Professor Jody Berland of the Division of Humanities and the Graduate Program in Communications and Culture, and Professor Peter Timmerman of the Faculty of Environmental Studies will respond briefly to the talk before discussion is open to the public.

Raffles' research and writing on the cultural and historical anthropology of "nature" explores connections among people, other beings and "inanimate" phenomena. He is the author of Insectopedia (Pantheon Books, 2010) and In Amazonia: A Natural History (Princeton University Press, 2002).

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Environmental Studies, and the Office of the Master of Founders College.

For more information, contact Margaret MacDonald at maggie@yorku.ca.

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

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