Date & Time
- DATES: SEP 25 | OCT 23 | NOV 27 |
JAN 22 | FEB 26 | MAR 26 - Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
- Location: VIRTUAL (ZOOM WEBINAR)
Register
Participants at a minimum of 50% of sessions will receive a certificate of attendance from CIFAL York
BACKGROUND
One of the worse impacts of climate change is forced displacement. Climate change is fueling internal and international migration and refugee trends through the extreme weather events (e.g. abnormally heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, heatwaves, and cyclones), sea level rise, water and food insecurity and associated conflicts. The United Nations General Assembly’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, explicitly recognised that displacement are happening “in response to the adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters (some of which may be linked to climate change), or other environmental factors” (UNGA, 2016: article I.1). Climate change related displacement is on top of international agenda. Estimates show that climate change related events have been linked to 23.7 million internal displacements worldwide in 2021 and it is estimated that annually 20 million will be displaced. While majority of displacement occur internally, cross border displacement is also happening. As situation can get worse during the next few decades, it is crucial to better understand the significance of the problem, here climate displaced population, researchers, and experts to reduce the vulnerability, increase coping capacity, and enhance effective planning and policy alternatives at local, regional, national, and global levels. The aim of this speaker series is to critically examine the current and future of climate displacement by hearing voices from different parts, sections, and viewpoints.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The key goals and objectives of the speaker series are to:
- To examine current and emerging trends and challenges of climate displacement
- To understand the impacts of climate change on internal and international displacement.
- To share lessons learnt and best practices of climate displacement in different parts of the world
- To examine the critical role of public, private and non-governmental organizations in climate displacement management
- To understand the vulnerability, equity, diversity, and inclusion aspects of climate displacement
- Examine complexities and consequences of climate displacement of vulnerable population and indigenous communities
- To examine the role of science and technology in prediction and management of climate displacement
- Analyze recent cases of climate displacement in different parts of the world
- Examine the people perceptions, reflections, choices, behaviour, and response to potential climate displacement.
TARGET AUDIENCES
- Public officials
- Government agencies responsible for displacement, migration, and refugees
- Researchers
- Students
- NGOs involved in migration and refugees’ settlement
- Representatives of intergovernmental organizations
- Civil Society and Community Leaders
SESSION 1 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 25 12:00PM-1:00PM (EDT)
Moderator: Nilanjana Ganguli
Doctoral Student, Climate Change & Health, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University
Nilanjana (Nell) Ganguli is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at York University. Her work employs an intersectional systems-thinking and participatory approach to develop strategies for improving health resilience among women engaged in transactional sex in Malawi’s gendered natural resource economies, particularly in the Lake Chilwa basin. Nell holds a master's degree in environmental studies and a bachelor's in biotechnology from York University. From 2022 to 2024, Nell served as the project manager for the Dahdaleh Institute's Complex Adaptive Modelling of the Health Impacts of Climate Change in Malawi project. She currently contributes as a graduate research assistant (grant writer) for the Malawi team and volunteers as a grant manager for the Leadership of Environment & Development-Southern & Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA).
Speaker: Dr. Yvonne Su
Director, Centre for Refugee Studies and Assistant Professor, Department of Equity Studies, York University
Topic: Redefining Climate Frontiers: Migration, Displacement, and Global Resilience
Dr. Yvonne Su is the Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies. Her research is on forced migration, climate change-induced displacement and queer migration. She has worked extensively with vulnerable communities in Southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbeans including refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, indigenous peoples and LGBTQ+ communities. Her work has been cited by the international organizations like the IPCC and IOM. Su has garnered over $8 million in research funding, including funding from NFRF and SSHRC. She takes an interdisciplinary, participatory and decolonial approach to scholarship that is focused on developing strong partnerships with local communities, NGOs, and policymakers.
SESSION 2 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23 12:00PM-1:00PM (EDT)
Moderator: Nilanjana Ganguli
Doctoral Student, Climate Change & Health, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University
Nilanjana (Nell) Ganguli is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at York University. Her work employs an intersectional systems-thinking and participatory approach to develop strategies for improving health resilience among women engaged in transactional sex in Malawi’s gendered natural resource economies, particularly in the Lake Chilwa basin. Nell holds a master's degree in environmental studies and a bachelor's in biotechnology from York University. From 2022 to 2024, Nell served as the project manager for the Dahdaleh Institute's Complex Adaptive Modelling of the Health Impacts of Climate Change in Malawi project. She currently contributes as a graduate research assistant (grant writer) for the Malawi team and volunteers as a grant manager for the Leadership of Environment & Development-Southern & Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA).
Speaker: Dr. Will Greaves
Associate Professor, International Relations, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Topic: Beyond a Bed for the Night: The Limits of Humanitarianism for Responding to Domestic Climate Disasters
Will Greaves is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, where his research focuses on global politics and security, climate and energy, Indigenous peoples, and the circumpolar Arctic. He is author of more than thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has co-edited two books: Breaking Through: Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic and One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance. He is Lead for Climate Change and Environment with three federally-funded research networks, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
SESSION 3 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27 12:00PM-1:00PM (EST)
Moderator: Dr. Yvonne Su
Dr. Yvonne Su is the Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies. Her research is on forced migration, climate change-induced displacement and queer migration. She has worked extensively with vulnerable communities in Southeast Asia and Latin America and the Caribbeans including refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, indigenous peoples and LGBTQ+ communities. Her work has been cited by the international organizations like the IPCC and IOM. Su has garnered over $8 million in research funding, including funding from NFRF and SSHRC. She takes an interdisciplinary, participatory and decolonial approach to scholarship that is focused on developing strong partnerships with local communities, NGOs, and policymakers.
Speaker: Dr. Erica Bower
Human Rights Watch, Climate Displacement Researcher
Topic: Reimagining “community” engagement: lessons from climate-related planned relocation
Dr. Erica Bower is a researcher at Human Rights Watch, with a decade of experience studying how climate change affects human mobility and advocating for policies that better protect people’s rights on the move. She is a member of the Platform on Disaster Displacement Advisory Committee and an Affiliate of the Kaldor Centre. Previously, she worked with diverse organizations, including UNHCR, IDMC and the Nansen Initiative. She holds a PhD in planned relocation governance from Stanford, a MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford, and a BA in Human Rights and Sustainable Development from Columbia.
SESSION 4 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22 12:00PM-1:00PM (EST)
Moderator: TBD
Speaker: TBD
Topic: TBD
SESSION 5 WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26 12:00PM-1:00PM (EST)
Moderator: TBD
Speaker: TBD
Topic: TBD
SESSION 6 WEDNESDAY MARCH 26 12:00PM-1:00PM (EST)
Moderator: TBD
Speaker: TBD
Topic: TBD
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Organizers
CIFAL York is part of UNITAR's global network of training centres for knowledge-sharing, training, and capacity-building for public and private leaders, local authorities, and civil society. CIFAL Centres are local and regional hubs for innovative, participatory and co-creative knowledge exchange opportunities to support decision-making processes, build capacity, and accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals. Established in 2020, CIFAL York started its operation in June 2021 as the first CIFAL Centre in Canada. Health and Development training and knowledge sharing is among the key focusing areas of CIFAL York.
For more information or questions please contact: cifaldirector@yorku.ca
Y-EMERGE builds on York’s exceptional expertise to develop, grow, and sustain transformative and multidisciplinary research and teaching in transformative disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Y-EMERGE brings together a wide variety of disciplines, including mathematical modelling, social and behavioural study, geospatial technology, artificial intelligence, participatory research, and the humanities and social sciences.
Y-EMERGE fosters strong relationships with governmental agencies, stakeholders, and communities beyond the campus, emphasizing research and training opportunities that contribute to community and organizational resilience.
The Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at York is an interdisciplinary community of researchers dedicated to advancing the well-being of refugees and others displaced by violence, persecution, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation through innovative research, education, and policy engagement. Since its inception in 1988, CRS is recognized as an international leader in the creation, mobilization, and dissemination of new knowledge that addresses forced migration issues in local, national and global contexts.
CRS is an organized research unit of York University. Founded in 1988, the Centre for Refugee Studies is successor to the Refugee Documentation Project created in 1981 for the conservation and analysis of research documents and data collected by Operation Lifeline during the Indochinese “Boat People” crisis (see attachments below for news articles). In 1991, CRS was designated as a Centre of Excellence by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
At the time of its founding, the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University became the second centre of its kind in the world, following the Refugee Studies Centre created at the University of Oxford. An increasing number of centres devoted to the study of forced migration are emerging in various parts of the world, and the York centre has links with more than fifteen of them. CRS is one of the largest and most active research hubs related to refugee and forced migration studies in the world. The Centre for Refugee Studies fosters interdisciplinary and collaborative research and knowledge mobilization and invites inquiries from like minded institutions and scholars worldwide.
UP CIFAL Philippines was established in March 2016 through a cooperation agreement between the University of the Philippines and UNITAR. The center was formally launched during the 3rd Global Mayoral Forum in Quezon City on 29 September 2016. The center serves as a hub for training, advocacy, and research on the interwoven themes of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, migration, and gender equality. We enjoy unparalleled access to a vast network of experts, academics, and development professionals—a network we are harnessing to ensure that knowledge radiates towards those who most need it.
The UP-Resilience Institute was established as a proactive hub of benchmark innovative information vital to the nation’s efforts in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Its mission is to empower local communities through multidisciplinary actions toward resilience. As a response through its Memorandum No. PAEP-16-67, the University of the Philippines Board of Regents (BOR) approved on 28 July 2016 the establishment of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (UP RI) under the Office of the President of UP to have the following functions and programs concerning multi-hazard, multidisciplinary, multisectoral, comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM).
Antalya Bilim University (ABU) is the first private university established in 2010 in Antalya, the capital of tourism in Turkey, which has hosted many civilizations and cultures and is characterized by wonderful natural places and the main purpose of this university is to increase the level of education in the fields of science and technology and graduate qualified and trained cadres working to advance society. Its vision is to be the leading university in the region (which includes Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Southeastern Europe) and provide the best possible undergraduate and graduate education, with a distinguished academic team dedicated to teaching and research.