Blog

Professor Rob de Loë's new research program brings art and science together to improve environmental awareness and understanding. Working with contacts from Ontario's conservation authorities, he has developed several projects that use photography for environmental storytelling about key watershed processes.

Augustine Osei discusses his selection of the PhD program in Social and Ecological Sustainability and his research which he is conducting under the supervision of Dr. Maren Oelbermann. He is currently studying greenhouse gas emissions during growing and non-growing seasons and using spectroscopy techniques to measure carbon sequestration.

Fourth year honours co-op student Ishani Dasgupta reflects on students in Environment, Resources and Sustainability - the values, lessons learned and she provides a window into her experiences in the program.

In August 2022, a group of 12 students and two instructors took part in a new SERS field course titled The Ocean, Human Impacts and Sustainability. This course moved quickly through an overview of the ocean, explored human activities and impacts, particularly in the coastal zone, and then looked at some of the brilliant work that is going on to make our activities more sustainable.

Professor Andrea Collins interviews MES-Water student Chloé St. Amand on her choice to design a research project to understand the role of activism and community engagement in the decision-making process about the wastewater treatment facility in Victoria, B.C.

What role can science play in addressing the current global food crisis in ways that protect those who are most marginalized and safeguard the natural environment? Professor Jennifer Clapp reflects on policymaking processes at the United Nations Committee on World Food Security around food security and nutrition issues.

Fourth year SERS student, Charlie Jou-ter Woort, explains the game they adapted to promote the learning of Canadian plants and their uses and benefits. This game was created for ERS 402, the Senior Honours Research Seminar course.

How might post-secondary environmental education empower Canada’s incoming generation of change-makers to engage in meaningful environmental stewardship? Beth Grant and Emma Collette, two students in the SERS Master of Environmental Studies program, are tackling this question as part of a cross-institutional team of interdisciplinary researchers partially funded through the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant and based out of the Society Environment and Emotions Lab.

In December 2022 SERS 4th year student Emma Kirke attended the 15th meeting of the COP to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity as a youth delegate.  Emma reflects on her experience at the COP, her opinion on the outcome and appreciation for the freedoms afforded Canadian activists.

Nothing could stop the intrepid researchers in the Society, Environment and Emotions Lab! New babies, sleepless nights, a plague, mutant cells, one author’s inability to function in Google docs, multiple time zones, and thousands of kilometers didn’t deter Lauren Smith (SERS, PhD Candidate) from fearlessly leading Sarah Wolfe, Hanna Ross (MES 2017), and Stephanie Shouldice (MES 2015) toward completion of a long overdue SSHRC deliverable.