EUC Research Update – May/June 2026

Accolades, Awards and Acknowledgements

In May 2026, York University faculty whose research demonstrates international leadership, real‑world impact and scholarly depth were celebrated during the annual President’s Research Awards. EUC Professors Sheila Colla, Andil Gosine, and Ilan Kapoor were recognized for their transformative research excellence and impact.

The late Prof. Colla was recognized as a pioneering conservation scientist and educator whose work bridged the gaps between pollinator health, urban ecosystems, and social justice. Throughout her career, Dr. Colla exemplified leadership in both science and advocacy, especially as a woman of colour in STEM.

Prof. Gosine was recognized for his scholarly contributions to the fields of Caribbean studies, international development, environmental justice and art history. He recently received a Getty Scholarship for his project "Coolie Créole: Art For and Against ‘Us’," that considers issues of representation and its burdens through examination of contemporary Caribbean visual arts.

Prof. Kapoor is a recipient of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada recognizing his critical work in global politics and development studies. His research on postcolonial and psychoanalytic politics inspires further exploration and political activism in the common struggle to create more just and equitable societies.

In April 2026, EUC held its End of Year celebration, where Dean Alice Hovorka acknowledged the many academic and scholarly contributions of its faculty, staff and students — from the Dean’s Changemakers to peer mentors, student clubs, governance student representatives, as well work-study students. Undergraduate and graduate students were also recognized for receiving various awards and scholarships from EUC’s undergraduate student awards/NSERC USRA, Alectra, Canon Canada, Canadian Association of Geographers, Dian Marino, Enbridge, Harry Victor, John Warkentin to EUC PhD Dissertation Awards, Paul Simpson, Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship, Unilever, Vanier, among others. Three faculty members -- Muna Udbi Ali, Eric Miller and Joshua Thienpont -- received the Dean's Teaching Awards while Ouma Jaipaul-Gill received the Dean's Staff Award.

Roger Keil received new CIFAR funding for his research on "Living together in and beyond crisis urbanism: Towards an egalitarian politics and planning of the urban common-wealth." Keil is a CIFAR Fellow in their program on Humanity’s Urban Future where researchers study what makes a good city of the future.

The program is part of the following CIFAR Impact Clusters: Building Thriving Societies and Nurturing a Resilient Earth. CIFAR’s research programs are organized into 5 distinct Impact Clusters that address significant global issues and are committed to fostering an environment in which breakthroughs emerge.

Jennifer Korosi received new funding from the Government of the Northwest Territories for the project on "Science and management of blue-green algal (cyanobacteria) blooms in Sambaa K'e." The project is an evolving, collaborative effort led by the Sambaa K'e First Nation and academic researchers.

Driven by changing northern climates, recent initiatives focus heavily on understanding why these blooms in Trout Lake occur in a historically cold, nutrient-poor (oligotrophic). It tackles the alarming rise of blue-green algae and its toxic byproducts in vulnerable subarctic drinking water sources.

Ute Lehrer has been appointed as a Mercator Fellow for the next two years as part of the DFG-funded research project Gewohnter Wandel. Gesellschaftliche Transformation und räumliche Materialisierung des Wohnens (Everyday Change: Social Transformation and the Spatial Materialisation of Housing). The Mercator Fellowship is awarded to scholars with an outstanding international academic profile who contribute their expertise to collaborative research projects. The five-year, €3.5 million project is a joint initiative of the University of Weimar and Goethe University Frankfurt that examines the interconnections between housing markets, urban planning, and civil society. The project supports 13 PhD candidates, who are expected to complete their dissertations by 2028, as well as several postdoctoral researchers. In early May, the project held its public midterm conference, which attracted more than 300 participants. Ute Lehrer delivered the keynote address, High-rise Living: For Whom? And Why?, sharing her insights on the social and spatial implications of high-rise housing.

Joseph Mensah has been featured in a leading national platform in Ghana on how he became "one of Canada’s leading voices on migration, identity, and African development." From the lecture halls of the University of Ghana to the corridors of one of Canada’s leading universities, Mensah has spent decades answering some of the most urgent questions of our time: “Who are we? Where do we belong? And how can migration, education, and development transform societies for the better?” His scholarship has explored some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary societies with research interests that include transnational migration, return migration, ethno-racial identity formation, African development, and social transformation.

With these themes becoming increasingly important as countries grapple with immigration, multiculturalism, economic inequality, and globalisation, Mensah's remarkable academic achievements have made him a respected scholar, mentor, and bridge-builder between Africa and North America.

Bill Found gave a public lecture on "Discovering Caribbean Landscapes" at the Wind Surf, that is, the world’s largest sailing yacht in the world with more than 300 passengers! The lecture was based on his recently published book titled “The Making of the Caribbean Landscape: Images from a Changing Island World”, published by Dalvorem International. The book represents over 60 years of his research and photography in the Caribbean and is the first book to analyse landscapes of the entire insular Caribbean from prehistoric times to the present, brilliantly illustrating changes in natural and cultural features with almost 600 original photographs and maps.

Lisa Myers has been selected for consideration by the Hnatyshyn Foundation for the 2026 Mid-Career Awards for Excellence in Visual Arts and Curatorial Excellence. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting emerging, developing and mid-career artists and curators in Canada. Myers is a curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. Her research focuses on the varied values and functions of elements such as medicine plants and language, sound and sense. Through many media and materials including video, audio, printmaking, digital arts and socially engaged art approaches, her practice examines place, underrepresented histories/present/futures, and collective forms of knowledge exchange.

Anna Zalik, Adeyemi Olusola, and EUC Alumni Linn Biorklund, Kesha Fevrier and Isaac Osuoka along with the International Working Group on Petroleum Pollution and Just Transition in the Niger Delta were successful in their SSHRC Partnership Stage 1 application for their proposed project on "Charting a Global Just Transition Agenda: Decommissioning Hydrocarbons from the Niger Delta to the World."

The international partnership plans to investigate the environmental justice challenges of oil industry infrastructural decommissioning in key global legacy sites of intensive hydrocarbon extraction. Bringing together leading researchers, policy experts and advocates with a proven history of productive collaboration from universities, research institutes, and development organizations in Canada, Nigeria, Norway, the United Kingdom and the USA, the project will advance just and responsible oil industry decommissioning under the global energy transition.

Syrus Marcus Ware, EUC PhD Alumnus, has co-edited a new book titled Free To Be More: Creative Activism in the Era of Black Lives Matter (University of Regina Press, May 2026). The book celebrates artists at the forefront of a Black aesthetic renaissance and how they harness the arts to shape a freer future. It honours the creative revolutionary labour of Black artists, past and present and affirms the deep connection between art and activism. Indeed, it is a testament to how art can amplify a movement and offer tools to gather, organize, and enact transformative interventions in anti-Black racism.

Sophia Ilyniak and Michaela (Megan) Michalak received the EUC PhD Dissertation Field Research Award for Fall 2026.

Ilyniak will be doing field work for her research on "Rebuilding Ukraine: Sub/urban geographies of the third sector" in Ukraine and Poland.

Michalak will be doing field work for their research on "Filmmakers on the Frontlines of “Terricide”: Cinema of Environmental Struggles and Radical Place-Remaking " in Boston, USA as well as Montreal and Vancouver in Canada.

Melina Ghasem-Asad is part of the inaugural cohort of the Climate75 Fellowship with Starfish Canada, an eight-month hybrid program that equips youth from diverse backgrounds with the skills, knowledge, and network to lead climate action through an equity-centred lens. Fellows are engaged in hands-on projects, workshops, and expert-led sessions focused on climate communications, project design, and community engagement, culminating in a capstone showcase where participants share their ideas for a sustainable and climate-resilient future. Her project, AŠA, is her undergraduate honours thesis and creative community project, which explores racialized diasporic relationships to land as a practice of memory, resistance, and belonging.

EUC awarded three Undergraduate Research Awards (EUCURA) providing opportunities for select students to tackle focused research this summer under the mentorship of a faculty member.

Alisher Kulzhabayev is working with Mahtot Gebresselassie on the project titled “Materialities of AI in transportation systems: A Critical Approach."

Renata Ramlongan is working with Philip Kelly on the project “Analyzing Filipino Labour Migrations and the Global Fishing Industry.”

Michaela Mineault is working with Jennifer Korosi on a project “Establishing a Paleoenvironmental Context for Evaluating Causes of Recent Blue-Green Algae."

In addition, Kira Jordun has been awarded the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award where she is working with Joshua Thienpont on the project "Diatom-based assessment of nearshore environmental conditions in Muskoka Lakes."

It is with deep sorrow that we share the sad news that Dr. James Gibson passed away this May 2026. Dr. Gibson was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Senior Scholar and Professor Emeritus at York University, Toronto.

A historical geographer specializing in Russian imperial expansion to the east, he was the author of numerous publications on the Russian Far East, Russian America, and the Pacific Northwest. He was an extraordinary scholar with two books published in 2024 at the age of 89! Sincerest condolences to his family, friends, students and colleagues. Any donations made in his name can be made to the Daily Bread Food Bank. To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Publications and Reports

Adelabu, S., Durowoju, O. S., Adagbasa, E. G., Matamanda, A., & Olusola, A. (2026). Footprints of drought in a montane grassland biome: a drought vulnerability index approach to drought conditions. African Geographical Review, 45(3), 240–262.

Akingboye, A. S., Bery, A. A., Dick, M. D., Ahmed, B. M., Ale, T. O., & Olusola, A. O. (2026). State-of-the-Art Review of Artificial Intelligence in Environmental Geophysics and Geotechnical Engineering. Preprints.

Amarasingam, A., Hyndman, J., & Naganathan, G. (2026). ‘Critical security studies meets intergenerational transnationalism beyond the war zone: the LTTE, Tamil Eelam, and the Tamil Diaspora in Canada’ Chapter 9 in A Research Agenda for Critical Security Studies. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Chun, K. P., Octavianti, T., Bradford, L., Reeves, M., Nagheeby, M., Olusola, A., Howard, B. C., Ceperley, N., Castelli, G., Nkwasa, A., Budiyono, Y., Strickert, G., Morales-Marin, L. A., Sutanto, S. J., Nóbrega, R. L. B., Diele-Viegas, L. M., & Gopinath, D. (2026). Decolonising hydrology: Reflecting on positionalities for sustainable and just futures. Environmental Science & Policy, 178, Article 104340.

Dorin, B., and Colla, S. (2026). Multi-scale drivers of wild bee communities in vineyard agroecosystems. Agricultural Systems, 237, 104799.

Dutt, S., Remmel, T.K., Rivas, C.A. et al. Advancing forest fragmentation analysis: a systematic review of evolving spatial metrics, software platforms, and remote sensing innovations. Landscape Ecology, 41, 92 (2026).

Florko, K. R. N., Thiemann, G. W., Lea, E. V., & Melling, H. (2026). Environmental indicators link prey and predator body condition of two Arctic marine predators. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 31, Article 101315.

Hong, A., Gebresselassie, M., Kim, J., Li, S. (Alex), Cochran, A. L., Bogra, B., & Biglieri, S. (2026). Bridging the Gap: Accessibility for Aging and Disability in Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 1–8.

Japiong, M., Landy, C. K., Fox, M. T., Mensah, J., Adatara, P., & Ibrahim, M. M. (2026). Understanding the healthcare services and social support needs of patients with end-stage kidney disease in Ghana. BMC Nephrology, 27, Article 5054.

Kapoor, I. (2026). Anti-Blackness, Social Death, and Negative Universality. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 52(8): 1-16.

Kapoor, I. (2026). The Global South cannot afford to quit fossil fuels. Social Europe. June 2.

Keil, R., Beveridge, R., Sotomayor, L., Kerr, E., & Lashkari, M. (2026). Multi-level crisis governance in Canada and the UK: Seeing crisis governance like a city (Final Report). The CITY Institute at York University.

Lee, E. (2026). Resisting detached abstraction and universality: The politics and practices of artmaking in the racialized suburbs of Scarborough, Toronto. Human Geography. May.

Rady, F. and Roberts, J. (2026). Toronto’s FIFA Dreams: Whose City, Whose World Cup? Progressive City.

Rotz, S. (2026). Who is Ontario’s ‘food independence’ really for? New agri-food legislation misdiagnoses land and food issues in the north. Canadian Dimension, April.

Rutherford, J., Fraser, G., Carter, A., Pilditch, C., & Ellis, J. (2026). Examining inclusivity of participation and engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand’s offshore petroleum governance. The Extractive Industries and Society, Article 101878.

EUC and Associated Events

Call for Participation and Upcoming Events

Invitation to Participate! Do you live in the Black Creek communities? Have you experienced flooding in the neighbourhood? Do you feel prepared to cope with flooding? The Flood Risk Mapping team is looking to get feedback on how the community has experienced flooding. The project research examines how flooding disproportionately impacts racialized and marginalized communities along Black Creek, particularly in Jane-Finch, Glenfield–Jane Heights, York University Heights, and Rustic. Help inform the research and fill out the survey. The project is conducted and funded by the Black Research Seed Fund at York University, with support from the Jane/Finch Centre.

From October 7-9, the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics (CANSEE) will hold its conference at Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The event will gather scholars, practitioners, and people exploring the intersection of economies, ecologies, and justice for transformative futures. This year's theme on "Changing Tides" reflects the dynamic and transformative forces shaping our world today, from ecological and economic systems to cultural and social landscapes. Like the tides, these changes invite disruption and opportunities for renewal, adaptation, and collective re-imagining. Set in Cape Breton, where land and ocean meet, Changing Tides resonates deeply with the region’s history, identity, and ongoing transitions. This theme invites reflection on place-based knowledge, decolonial futures, and the collective work required to chart just, regenerative, and post-growth pathways forward.

From 9-11 November, IAHS (International Association of Hydrological Sciences), LADSIS Laboratory (Research Laboratory on Socio-Anthropological Differentiations and Social Identities), Faculty of Arts and Humanities Aïn Chock - Hassan II University of Casablanca, and EGU (European Geosciences Union) will be hosting a conference centered around Theme 3 - Cross-Cutting Goals of the current IAHS scientific decade, HELPING - Science For Water Solutions Decade. The conference will take place in Casablanca, Morocco, at Mohamed Sekkat University Library. The event aims to bring together researchers from a variety of fields, from socio-hydrology, over numerical modeling, to remote sensing, and will explore avenues on how to better integrate local perspectives into a wide range of methodologies. For researchers, it encourages translational work and for communities, it affirms their agency in shaping water futures. For society at large, it is a call to collaborate across scales for just and lasting water solutions. Submit your abstract by July 3! More info here.

Recent Events

EUC recently hosted the International Political Economy and Ecology Summer School on Jurisdiction Back: Restoring Indigenous Governance in the Wake of Extraction. The interdisciplinary course examined “Indigenous jurisdiction” as inherent governing authority: a living, practiced form of collective governance, with particular attention to how it is disrupted in contexts of ongoing settler colonial extractivism. Guest instructors included Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark from the School of Indigenous Governance, University of Victoria and Dr. Susan Hill, Director of the Centre for Indigenous Studies, University of Toronto with Course Director Dr. Dayna N. Scott, EUC/Osgoode Law School. In addition, a public lecture was held on Restoring Indigenous Governance through an Ethic of Care.

The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservatoin (BEEc) also held a Dedication and Outreach Flower Patch for the late Professor Sheila Colla at the Maloca Community Garden. The event coincides with Pollinator Appreciation Week Event honouring Sheila’s contribution and love for pollinators with a dedication of new gardens in her name. The event featured a dedication of the garden and educational talks by bee and nature experts!

This June, EUC's Maloca Community Garden hosted “Roots for Resilience: Black Museum in the Garden,” a unique pop-up exhibition bringing Canada's rich history to Black communities. Curated by Michelle Robbins, a 7th-generation descendant of the Buxton settlement, the outdoor event brought students and scholars from across York University together to connect with this history in honour of Juneteenth. The exhibition spotlighted the incredible self-sufficiency and resourcefulness of Buxton’s early community, which thrived through high-standard education and community innovation despite facing a harsh, swampy environment and limited natural resources. The event showcased a range of artifacts from the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, spanning from heavy reminders of history to beautiful celebrations of everyday life.

The International Ecological Footprint and Learning Lab (IEFLL) held a webinar that explored Indigenous rights and land claims, with a focus on how biocapacity can be used as a tool in the context of Indigenous title and claims. Moderated by Peri Dworatzek, the three panelists: Dr. Minakshi Das, Adjunct Professor at York University and Human Rights Practitioner, Dr. Katie (Kish) Linden, Associate Professor at Cape Breton University; and Kaitlin Pal, MES and JD student at York University, discussed how biocapacity can be developed into self-determination. Das considered the legal and political dimensions of Indigenous land rights by drawing on comparative research from Canada and India. Building on this legal and ecological framework, Linden and Pal presented their collaborative research project, "Measuring What Was Promised: Biocapacity, Two-Eyed Seeing, and the SON Title Claim" which demonstrated how environmental data can be meaningfully integrated with cultural perspectives. The panelists offered a transformative vision of how inclusive data and data sovereignty can reshape modern land and resource governance at complementary research levels and engaging case studies.

EUC held its final seminar series in May on Global/Local Plant Worlds with Franklin Ginn, Oriana Schwartzentruber, and EUC Prof Patricia Wood. The speakers discussed how plants and people inhabit and shape complex, multispecies worlds together. They also addressed the questions on how plants participate in economic, political, spatial, and cultural relations — not just as ciphers for human desire, but as active beings whose life trajectories can't be reduced to standing reserve? How do people and plants communicate with one another and what kinds of ethical relations between people and plants are highlighted in environmental arts and humanities research? The seminar served as the fifth and final series of the More-than-Humanities: Interdisciplinary Collaborations, Multiagential Worlds, a joint venture in Fall 2025/Winter 2026 between EUC and the Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Bristol, UK.

EUC in the Media

Melina Ghasem-Asad appeared in Canada's National Observer feature article titled "Toronto student helps immigrant youth connect to the land and their heritage." In this article, Melina discussed her work with the Maloca Community Garden and Many Green Hands where she facilitated decolonial gardening and climate justice programs that centred collective healing and agricultural education. As president of the student club Many Green Hands, she has designed and facilitated seminar-workshops for students and urban farmers. She has also ran programs aimed at encouraging racialized and queer people to explore how a relationship to the soil might increase their own resilience. Here work is part of her master's thesis research exploring racialized, diasporic relationships to the land as practices of memory, resistance and belonging.

Ilan Kapoor penned an article in The Loop titled "The limits of sanctions in a multipolar era." In this article, Kapoor argues that the primary limitation of modern economic sanctions is that they impose significant costs on targeted populations without securing political compliance. In a multipolar era, states adapt through alternative trade networks, shadow fleets, and new payment systems. He also notes that "multipolarity creates workarounds" such that BRIC countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as well as the growing intermediary states have created new opportunities for sanctions evasion and adaptation. Hence, "sanctions' ability to compel political compliance appears to be increasingly uncertain and may continue to inflict pain rather than guarantee obedience". He also provided an op-ed in Aljazeera noting that "The world urgently needs a US-Iran deal now." In this article, he noted that the current negotiations regarding the Strait of Hormuz extend far beyond regional diplomacy and are critical to preventing a cascading global cost-of-living crisis. He warns that continued military disruptions will drive up energy and transport costs, directly increasing global food inflation due to the heavy reliance of agriculture and fertilizer production on stable fuel markets. The article emphasizes that reopening the strait is a global economic necessity, as vulnerable populations who do not influence the geopolitical conflict will otherwise bear the highest humanitarian and financial costs.

Calvin Lakhan's study on "Material Substitution Costing Analysis" commissioned by the American Consumer Institute and released as well in PR Newswire highlighted the critical role plastics play in keeping everyday consumer goods affordable. The report finds that removing plastic packaging from common household goods would trigger widespread price increases across the grocery aisle. The commissioned study recommends a balanced approach that recognizes the essential role plastics play in modern supply chains while continuing to explore innovation and improved waste management.

In an article titled "Who is Ontario’s ‘food independence’ really for?" in Canadian Dimension, Sarah Rotz analyzes new agrifood legislation titled Protecting Ontario’s Food Independence Act 2026 arguing that the legislation misdiagnoses the province's agricultural crisis by targeting foreign buyers when data shows farmland consolidation is driven by domestic investment and megafarms. Rotz explains that the planned expansion in the northern Clay Belt focuses on capital-intensive, export-oriented commodities like canola and beef, which do not improve access to fresh, affordable food for local northern communities facing food insecurity. Rotz also mentions environmental risks, noting that large-scale deforestation and tile drainage will permanently alter local watersheds without any robust provincial monitoring systems to track the cumulative damage. Rotz underscores that genuine food independence requires policy attention to shift away from global market competitiveness toward regional food sovereignty, strict environmental monitoring, and equitable land access.

Mark Winfield served as guest speaker on TVO today where panelists examined the concerns about the federal government's $2B AI strategy aimed at boosting jobs, skills training, and business growth, alongside plans to build large-scale AI data centres powered by clean energy. As these projects move into communities, opposition seems to be mounting ,as evidenced by recent protests in Hamilton and Angus Reid poll showing 68 per cent of Canadians oppose data centres near their homes. With roughly 100 data centres already in Ontario, the question is do more bring opportunity or risk? Winfield also had a podcast interview in CBC Listen about Canada’s solar and wind energy. Notably, despite Canada's strong foundation in hydro and nuclear power, the country is lagging behind the G7 average for wind and solar adoption. Winfield explains that this lag is due to severe domestic policy instability and regional backsliding. Winfield warns that despite Canada's massive geographic potential for inter-provincial renewable energy optimization, this current instability risks locking the country into expensive, carbon-intensive systems that will severely undermine its affordability, competitiveness, and decarbonization goals.