It is one thing to conduct cutting-edge research; it is another to communicate that research to the world. After presenting his research in just three minutes, York University geography PhD candidate Colin Sutherland has been named a 2019 top 25 finalist for the SSHRC Storytellers Competition.

Colin Sutherland

An initiative of the Government of Canada’s Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the SSHRC Storytellers Competition invites post-secondary students to tell a story of how SSHRC-funded research is helping Canadians. Participants are limited to just three minutes or 300 words.

“Communication is a really important component of the work we do in academia,” said Sutherland. “It was great to see that I could get a message across to at least a panel to give them an idea of what kind of work I do and its relevance to Canadians.”

Sutherland’s research involves a hot topic: wildfire management. He interrogates the common perception of wildfires as surprise disasters, instead looking at the sociopolitical conditions that make them possible. His entry in the SSHRC competition focused on his research on wildfire management, exploring the mechanisms used in Canada’s national parks and neighbouring jurisdictions to manage prescribed burns on a landscape.

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