York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies is holding its first annual research conference on Saturday, May 8, in the TEL Building, room 1004, starting at 10am.
Entitled “The Praxis of Participatory Research: Diversity, Creativity and Chaos”, the morning portion of the conference will feature FES Dean David Morley (right) in conversation about “Emerging Praxis”, with Budd Hall (left), dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, and Gareth Morgan (below, right), distinguished research professor at York and co-director of the York Schulich School of Business PhD program. The conference theme relates to Morley’s primary research contribution to FES.
Separately, Hall will give a talk on the “Evolution of Participatory Research”, and Morgan will speak about the “Evolution of Action Research”.
Speakers in the afternoon are Michael Bach, VP & director of Research at the Roeher Institute in the Kinsmen Building on the Keele campus; Beth Franklin (left), part-time York FES faculty member and research associate; and Pat Bradshaw, York professor of organizational behaviour in the Schulich School of Business.
There is no registration fee and lunch will be provided. For further information or to register please contact Dianne Zecchino at diannez@yorku.ca.
For a complete schedule of speakers, topics etc. click here.
As a lead-in to the conference, there will be a special evening event to mark the 35th anniversary of York’s FES and celebrate David Morley’s leadership. It will be held at the Seymour Schulich Building Executive Learning Centre Dining Room. 
Keynote speaker at the evening event will be Jack Diamond (right), partner in the Toronto architectural firm Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated. His talk is called, “A Pox on their Houses – Urban Failures of City, Provincial and Federal Governments”. Diamond and his firm have won many national and international awards, among them six Governor General’s awards in architecture. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal.