EUC Impact Report 2025-2026

Ilan Kapoor has been inducted into the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), joining the Academy of Social Sciences as part of its Class of 2025. Internationally recognized for his critical work in global politics and development studies, his research has helped establish two influential subfields: postcolonial and psychoanalytic development studies.

Sheila Colla was celebrated with numerous prestigious awards, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Award for Science Promotion, the Ontario Nature Education Award, the Entomological Society of Canada C. Gordon Hewitt Award, and the King Charles III Coronation Medal. Recently, a native plant garden was established to honour Colla’s legacy as conservation scientist.

Andil Gosine received a Getty Scholarship for his work on Coolie Créole: Art for and against 'Us' (January–June 2026). His research considers issues of representation and its burdens, through examination of contemporary Caribbean visual arts.

Muna-Udbi Ali received a Dean’s Teaching Award in recognition of her interdisciplinary approach to the diverse fields of Black studies, critical race studies, Black feminist studies, queer studies, environmental justice, public pedagogy, and public policy (specifically immigration, refugee, health and welfare policies). Her current research and teaching interests focus on “The future of Black hiring commitments on campus.”

Eric Miller received a Dean’s Teaching Award in recognition of his dynamic approach to teaching economics of environmental issues and public policy which includes the scope of natural resource economics, environmental economics, and ecological economics. He has developed and taught courses in Ecological Footprint Accounting and Ecological Footprint Analytics and has directed the work of the International Ecological  Footprint Learning Lab that produces the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts.

Joshua Thienpont received a Dean’s Teaching Award in  recognition of his innovative approach to teaching the science of a changing climate.  Through the course's learning lab activities, students are able to conduct climate modelling to assess how human influence may contribute to different climate scenarios – and how those scenarios could impact biodiversity.

Raju Das received a Distinguished Achievement Award in Political Economy for the Twenty-First Century from the World Association for Political Economy for his book "Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations (2022).

Ute Lehrer has been appointed as a Mercator Fellow 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

Lisa Myers was awarded an Honorary Recognition of Cultural Carriers by the Canada Council for the Arts for her artistic and cultural endeavours to promote Indigenous languages.

Adedibu Sunny Akingboye has been awarded a Connected Minds Postdoctoral Fellowship at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC). Collaborating with Adeyemi Olusola, his research focuses on advancing climate resilience by integrating artificial intelligence, geophysics, and geotechnical engineering.

Ximena Martinez Trabucco received a SSHRC postdoctoral fellwship in June 2025, under the supervision of Carlota McAllister. She is a scholar of land, Indigeneity, and environmental justice in the south-central Andean region (the Chilean, Peruvian, and Bolivian border). Her research deals with ethnic political identities, multicultural policies, and land rights in Northern Chile.

Roger Keil and Linda Peake were honored by the CITY Institute for their significant contributions to the field of urban studies. Both served as directors of the CITY Institute and were instrumental towards institution-building, engaged scholarship, and student mentorship.

Carli Melo received the EUC PhD Dissertation Field Research Award in Winter 2025 and was recently a recipient Journal of Economic Geography’s Best Early Career Paper Prize for her article on "COVID, coup, and crises of social reproduction: exploring the effects of Myanmar's polycrisis on migrant workers in global seafood production networks in Thailand."

Natalie Wood won the 2025 Michael Baptista Essay Prize for her paper, "Tidal Relations: Pelagic theories of the Black Atlantic." Her prize-winning essay explores ocean-based theories detailing how Black scholars and artists analyze and respond to anti-Black racism, environmental harm, and Eurocentric power systems through the historical significance of the Atlantic Ocean and the Middle Passage.

Laurence Butet-Roch was one of the recipients of the Governor General Gold Medals in 2025 in recognition of her outstanding scholastic achievements. Her doctoral research focused on the visual representation of Aamjiwnaang First Nation and its experience of environmental injustice in Canadian news outlets.

Maureen Owino won the 2025 Canadian Association of HIV Research (CAHR) Social Science New Investigator Award. Since 2007, Owino has been an active organizer and advocate for immigrants, refugees, women, and youth with HIV/AIDS in Toro She has been an active volunteer in many organizations including board membership of the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP), Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN), HIV Legal Clinic of Ontario (HALCO) and a steering committee member of the Toronto HIV Network.

Melvin Chan won a Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship for the 2025-26 academic year, awarded to assist outstanding York doctoral students who have made significant progress on the research and writing of their dissertations to facilitate timely degree completion. He also received a Culture and Animals Foundation (CAF) grant for his project “Rescuing Rabbits: An Institutional Etho-Ethnography of Rabbit Welfare and Advocacy in British Columbia.” The grant supports Chan in advancing his dissertation, enabling him to write portions of his monograph, continue analyzing his data, and present findings at academic and scholarly events.

Grace Pawliw-Fry, Geography MA, has won the York University Thesis Prize for 2026! Their thesis, “Teetering on the Edge of Surplus: Neurodivergent Work, Social Reproduction, and Bodyminds in the Ontario Labour Market” won the Paul Simpson-Housley Award for the best master’s thesis in the Graduate Program in Geography in 2025-26 and was then nominated to FGS for the university-wide Thesis Prize competition.