Mathieu Feagan

Assistant Professor
Department of Knowledge Integration

Cross appointments:

  • Department of Geography and Environmental Management
  • School of Environment, Enterprise and Development
  • School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability

Contact information:

Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 40859
Office: Environment 1 (EV1), room 212
Email: mathieu.feagan@uwaterloo.ca

Degrees:

  • PhD Communication and Culture, Ryerson and York Universities, 2015
  • MA Canadian and Native Studies, Trent University, 2007
  • BA Anthropology, McGill University, 2000

Grants and awards:

  • 2023 Waterloo Climate Institute Seed Grant Competition, “Nature-based solutions for urban Latin America: Imagining alternative pathways for urban resilience”, ($15,000). Principal Investigator: Dr. Marta Berbés. Co-PIs: Dr. Mathieu Feagan, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Elizabeth Cook, and Dr. Nandita Basu 

  • 2022 Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grant ($2,600), Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo. Title: Pedagogies for the Anthropocene: How can self-assessment help build capacity for transdisciplinary teams-based approaches? Principal Investigator: Feagan M, Co-Applicant(s): Dr. Marta Berbés, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Elizabeth Cook, Dr. Mercy Borbor-Cordova and Dr. Maria Del Pilar Cornejo-Rodriguez 

  • 2022 NATURA Student Research Award ($2,500), NATURA Network, The New School. Title: Technologies of justice and nature-based solutions in Bogotá’s informal urban areas. Principle Investigators: Duvan Lopez and Ananth Udupa; Co-applicant: M Feagan. 

  • 2021 Ecological Society of America, Science Communication in Practice Award, Future Cities
  • 2021 International Research Experiences for Students (IRES). ($300,000) “Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience in Latin America” Principal Investigator: Berbés M. Co-Principal Investigators: Grimm N, Feagan M, Cook E, and Muñoz-Erickson T.
  • 2020 Cartwright Award of Excellence, Cartwright School District No.83
  • 2019 Early Career Symposium. ($18,400), Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network Award. “Cultivating the Next Generation of SETS Leaders for Urban Resilience: Equitable and Multifunctional Green Infrastructure Implementation for the New Climate Normal.” Principal Investigator: Marissa Matsler; Co-Investigators: Elser S, Feagan M, Helmrich A, Markolf S, McPhillips L, and Smith M.
  • 2017 Smart & Connected Communities Planning Grant. ($99,867), National Science Foundation, USA. “Building resilient coastal cities through smart and connected communities.” Co-Principal Investigators: Grimm NB, Feagan M, Muñoz-Erickson T, Troxler T, and Welty C. Our work builds transdisciplinary capacity across data managers, natural and social scientists and local experts to build resilience through knowledge system interventions in coastal cities.
  • 2015 International Workshop Award ($11,500), Antipode Foundation, UK. Feagan M, Otalvaro GJ, Polo P, Berbes-Blazquez M, Kukoc I. Our work explores the political ecology of knowledge across Canadian and Latin American geographies of capital, with a view toward international solidarity on issues of health and environment related to extractive industries.
  • 2015 EkoSanté Collaboration Post-Doctoral Fellowship ($10,000) International Development Research Centre, Canada. This award supported postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto’s Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, exploring changes in policy and practice on issues of environment and health across the Americas.

Research interests:

Social theory, Indigenous ways of knowing, Emancipatory pedagogies, Ecological consciousness

Current research grants:

  • 2024 Principal Investigator on New Frontiers in Research Fund exploration grant Just Transitions as Consciousness Change: Learning with Frontline Communities ($250,000CDN)
  • Co-principal investigator on National Science Foundation RULA IRES Nature-Based Solutions Research in Urban Latin America: International Research Experience for Students ($300,000 USD)
  • 2023 Waterloo Climate Institute Seed Grant Competition, “Nature-based solutions for urban Latin America: Imagining alternative pathways for urban resilience”, ($15,000). Principal Investigator: Dr. Marta Berbés. Co-PIs: Dr. Mathieu Feagan, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Elizabeth Cook, and Dr. Nandita Basu 
  • 2022 Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grant ($2,600), Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo. Title: Pedagogies for the Anthropocene: How can self-assessment help build capacity for transdisciplinary teams-based approaches? Principal Investigator: Feagan M, Co-Applicant(s): Dr. Marta Berbés, Dr. Nancy Grimm, Dr. Elizabeth Cook, Dr. Mercy Borbor-Cordova and Dr. Maria Del Pilar Cornejo-Rodriguez 

Published papers:

  • 2024 Wexler L, Burke J and Feagan M. (forthcoming). “Weaving Indigenous and Western Knowledges as a Relational Approach to Decolonize Climate Complexity Education.” Special issue of New Directions in Teaching and Learning, Walking together on parallel paths.
  • 2024 Feagan M, Muñoz-Erickson TA, Hobbins R, Baja K, Chester M, Cook EM, Grimm NB, Grove M, Iwaniec DM, Iyer S, McPhearson T, Méndez-Lázaro P, Miller C, Sauter D, Solecki W, Tomateo C, Troxler T, and Welty C. “Co-producing new knowledge systems for resilient and just coastal cities: A social-ecological-technological systems framework for data visualization.” In Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105513
  • 2023 Feagan M, Fork M, Gray G, Hamann M, Hawes JK, Hiroyasu EHT, Wilkerson B. (accepted). “Critical pedagogical designs for SETS knowledge co-production: online peer- and problem-based learning by and for early career green infrastructure experts” in Urban Transformations 5, 6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42854-023-00051-1. 
  • 2023 Webb J, Raez-Villanueva S, Carrière PD, Beauchamp A, Bell I, Day A, Elton S, Feagan M, Giacinti J, Kabemba Lukusa JP, Kingsbury C, Torres-Slimming PA, Bunch M, Clow K, Gislason MK, Parkes M, Parmley EJ, Poland B, Vaillancourt C. “Transformational learning for a sustainable and healthy future through ecosystem approaches to health: Insights from 15 years of co-designed ecohealth teaching and learning experiences” in The Lancet Planetary Health, 7(1), e86‑e96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00305-9. 
  • 2021 Brisbois B, Feagan M, Stime B, Kukoc I, Berbés M, Gaibor J, Cole D, Hanson L, Larson C, Janes C, Plamondon K, Di Ruggiero E, Spiegel J, and Yassi A. “Mining, colonial legacies and neoliberalism: A political ecology of health knowledge” in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy.
  • 2019 Feagan M, Matsler M, Meerow S, Muñoz-Erickson T, Hobbins R, Gim C, and Miller C. “Redesigning Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience” in Environmental Science & Policy,Introduction to the Special Issue.
  • 2019 Wijsman K and Feagan M. “Rethinking Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Just Transformations” in Environmental Science & Policy 98 (2019) 70–76.
  • 2018 Feagan M. “Ethical Evaluation and Action Research: Toward New North-South Research Collaborations?” in Canadian Journal of Bioethics, 1(1):34-36.
  • 2018 Feagan M. “Fostering the Next Generation of Sustainability Leadership: Graduate Student Experiences with Ecohealth Communities of Practice” in International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
  • 2018 Cole DC, Parkes MW, Saint-Charles J, Gislason M, McKellar K, Webb J, and the members of the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health […Feagan M…]. “Evolution of capacity strengthening: insights from the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health” in Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2, August 2018.
  • 2014 Feagan M, Koné B, Brou N, Houenou YA, Kouassi E and Spiegel J. “Réflexion critique des approches écosystémiques de la santé sur la base des expériences des jeunes chercheurs au Canada, en Afrique Occidentale et Centrale et en Amérique Centrale,” in Vertigo (Hors-série 19).
  • 2014 Berbés-Blázquez M, Feagan M, Waltner-Toews D, Parkes MW. “The need for heuristics in ecohealth research,” in EcoHealth Vol 11(3), pp. 290-291.
  • 2011 Koné B, Feagan M, Houenou YA, Brou N, Houenou PV, Fayomi B, Ngnikam E, Cissé G, Spiegel J, et Kouassi E. “Facilitating the Relationship Between Researchers and Policy-Makers: Experiences from Three Ecohealth Projects in West and Central Africa,” in EcoHealth (8), pp. 413-417.

Courses taught:

  • INTEG 251: Creativity and Innovation
  • INTEG 220/SOC 312: The Nature of Scientific Knowledge
  • INTEG 375: Action Research and Student-Produced Knowledge
  • INTEG 420: Senior Honours Project
  • GEOG 410: Climate Justice
  • ENVS 410: Urban Futures Project