Research Project

Mobilizing sustainable energy research in the age of populism and COVID-19

Principal Investigator: Mark Winfield Funding: SSHRC Connections Grant. Term: 2020-2022. The project provides opportunities and platforms for researchers and practitioners to make connections between findings arising through different research projects and aids in setting future research agendas, including the impact of COVID-19 on low-carbon energy transitions. The subjects addressed through these projects have included energy […]

Yes In MyBackyard: Demystifying Shelters and Reframing CommunityDialogue about Homelessness in Toronto

Principal Investigator: Luisa Sotomayor. Partner: City of Toronto. Funding: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. Term: 2020-2022. The main goal of this Partnership Engage Grant (PEG) project is to build a strong research collaboration between managers and policy officers at the City of Toronto's Shelter Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) division and faculty and researchers at York […]

Work at Sea: Explaining Labour Relations in the Global Fishing Industry

Principal Investigator: Peter Vandergeest/Co-Investigator: Philip Kelly. Funding: SSHRC Insight Grant. Term: 2019-2024. The research sets out to examine marine fisheries work, focusing on fisheries based out of Thailand and Taiwan that have been identified as having large numbers of migrant workers and instances of labour abuse. In particular, it aims to understand labour issues as […]

Offshore oil exploratory drilling and marine protected areas: Assessing decision-making processes and outcomes in comparative developed state cases

Principal Investigator: Gail Fraser. Funding: SSHRC Insight Grant. Term: 2020-2026. The project focuses on the regulatory processes leading to decisions to permit exploratory offshore drilling in or adjacent to marine protected areas. It aims to assess decision-making processes by drawing on comparative international cases that highlight how eastern Canadian offshore oil governance practices can be […]

Relational Accountability for Indigenous Rematriation (RAIR): Creating food sovereignty through rematriation, land sharing, and relationship building

Principal Investigator: Sarah Rotz. Funding: SSHRC Insight Development Grant. Term: 2019-2023. The purpose of this RAIR Collective research project is to support grassroots Indigenous rematriation and (re)connection to land. It supports the convergence of food sovereign peoples in ways that advance dialogue and action for Indigenous land rematriation. This work centres Indigenous women and two-spirit presence, […]

A biocultural and interdisciplinary approach to pollinator conservation through ecology, art and pedagogy

Co-Principal Investigators: Sheila Colla and Lisa Myers. Funding: SSHRC New Frontiers in Research Fund. Term: 2020-2023. Dubbed as Finding Flowers, this interdisciplinary research project integrates art, ecology and education. Inspired by the work of the late Mi’kmaq artist Mike MacDonald, Finding Flowers grows, revitalizes and cares for native pollinator gardens as art installations, and as spaces for […]

Developing the Ecological Footprint Research Initiative

Co-Principal Investigators: Martin Bunch and Peter Victor. Funding: SSHRC Insight Development Grant/SSHRC Partnership Grant. Term: 2020-. The Ecological Footprint Initiative is a partnership between the Global Footprint Network and York researchers who are working to enhance the accounting methodology and improve data on which the concept of ecological footprint is based. The goal is for […]

Rubble to Refuge: Toronto's Leslie Street Spit

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Foster/Co-Investigator: Gail Fraser. Funding: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. Term: 2020-2025. The project unites established researchers from York University with conservation managers from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and students to address pressing issues on Toronto's Leslie Street Spit, one of Canada's most celebrated "urban wilderness" landscapes. It combines innovative methodologies […]

From Entrepreneurship to Rentiership? The Changing Dynamics of Innovation in Technoscientific Capitalism

Principal Investigator: Kean Birch. Funding: SSHRC Insight Grant. Term: 2018-2023. This project examines the extent, manifestation, and policy implications of ‘rentiership’ in contemporary, technoscientific capitalism. Rentiership is defined as the capture of value from the ownership and/or control of assets, rather than the production of new goods and services. It involves fieldwork on the following […]

Dependence of cyanobacteria bloom formation and maintenance on anoxia and trace metals in eutrophic lakes

Principal Investigator: Lewis Molot Funding: NSERC Term: 2018-2022 The key driver of cyanobacteria bloom formation is the onset of anoxia (defined as complete loss of dissolved oxygen and nitrate) at the sediment/water boundary which results in release of ferrous iron into overlying water. The discovery of this formation has important management implications because blooms can […]