Monday, August 28, 2023

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• LITE Seed Grant deadline approaches
• A radical response to the housing crisis
• Two professors represent Canada at Venice Biennale

LITE Seed Grant deadline approaches

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE).

The next deadline for the LITE Seed Grant program is October 2.

The purpose of the LITE Seed Grants, which are valued up to $7,500, is to fund research projects investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning at Waterloo.

Details are available on the Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Excellence website.

A radical response to the housing crisis

From the fall issue of the Waterloo Magazine: The New Entrepreneur. 

Waterloo student and entrepreneur Sean Campbell (MES ’16, PhD in progress) is creating a new model for affordable housing. It’s a social enterprise called Union Co-operative, which is working to buy residential and commercial properties in Waterloo region for permanent rental affordability through community ownership. 

Union Co-operative is hosted as a startup out of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College, and the project is supported by governments, local businesses, philanthropists and by everyday people living in Waterloo region.  

Read more about Campbell’s innovative approach to addressing the housing crisis.

Two professors represent Canada at Venice Biennale

An inside look at the AAHA collective's Not for Sale! exhibition at this year's Venice Biennale.

Two professors at the University of Waterloo are members of a team representing Canada at this year’s Venice Biennale showcase of architecture.

Adrian Blackwell and David Fortin, both professors at the Waterloo School of Architecture, belong to Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA), a collective of architects working to create decent housing for all. The AAHA’s architectural activist campaign, Not for Sale!, recently opened at the Canada Pavilion in Giardini, Italy.

Selected by the Canada Council for the Arts, which contributes $500,000 towards exhibition production, Not for Sale! brings together activists, advocates and architects to present their shared visions for ending housing alienation.

“The presentation of the AAHA collective’s Not For Sale! exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia highlights crucial issues related to affordable housing access in Canada,” said Simon Brault, Director and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts, in a media release.

The AAHA collective contends that in an economy dominated by real estate, urban environments suffer from the effects of systemic racism, sexism and classism.

"We believe that the roots of the housing crisis lie in the capitalist and colonialist dispossession of people from their land and homes. In Canada, this started with the appropriation of land from Indigenous peoples and the transformation of homes into commodities, objects of real estate speculation rather than places defined by deep community and cultural ties. We are witnessing the consequences of dispossession today. We are fighting for a system of housing that is fairer; we are showcasing not only the fundamental aspects of the housing crisis but also proposals for positive change – ways of legislating, financing, and designing that empower communities. We hope that the projects we show in Venice and our campaign at large will educate and inspire not only Canadians but people all over the globe impacted by the housing crisis.” – Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) collective

The prestigious Venice Biennale of Architecture, one of the most important cultural institutions in the world, runs until November 26.