ACT for Youth Project brings interdisciplinary researchers together, discussing youth in urban communities

The Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Project celebrated its youth researchers with an awards ceremony at the conclusion of a day-long partnership group meeting at Black Creek Pioneer Village. Above: From left, front row, ACT for Youth Project research interns Stephanie Lucas, Stephanie Henry, Aziz Mohammed, Muzna Rehman, Enoruwa Osagie, with youth co-chair Alex […]

City Institute researcher Simon Black on urban youth and the federal election

Which party speaks for urban youth this federal election? Over the past few weeks, media commentators have pointed to two important trends, wrote Simon Black, a graduate student researcher at The City Institute at York University, in the Toronto Star April 28: Polling suggests young people favour the Greens, Liberals and New Democrats: parties that […]

Watch Raccoon Nation documentary featuring two York researchers on CBC's website

CBC's The Nature of Things aired its Raccoon Nation documentary Feb. 24, featuring York psychology and biology Professor Suzanne MacDonald and PhD student Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux: The researchers tagged the raccoons with GPS collars to log their travels throughout the city, recording them at up to 1,500 points over six weeks. They found that the raccoons […]

City Institute grad student Simon Black on cultural funding and long-term urban planning

Rappers Kardinal Offishall and Saukrates, singer Jully Black, video director Lil’ X and deejay collective Baby Blue Soundcrew may not be familiar names to Torontonians over the age of 40, but anyone born after 1969 who loves hip hop and R & B is aware of these artists’ foundational roles in Canada’s urban music culture, […]

Two York Professors part of team creating art for St. Clair streetcar stops

From Yonge Street to Keele Street, 24 original artworks have been installed above the new streetcar shelters as part of Toronto’s St. Clair Avenue West Transit Improvement Project. Six of these installations – a quarter of the entire series – are the work of York University artists. This massive public art project had four separate […]

Professor Mark Winfield: GTA's urban growth raises important questions

York University environmental studies Professor Mark Winfield of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, who sits on a provincial smart growth advisory panel and studies urban sustainability, said the Star’s analysis – the first of its kind – raises important questions about how the 2006 Places to Grow plan is playing out, wrote the Toronto Star […]

National Film Board doc offers glimpses into immigrants’ high-rise world

Documentary is affiliated with York's Global Suburbanisms Project Take a glimpse into someone’s life that is otherwise invisible to most, wrote The Globe and Mail Jan. 5 in a story about the groundbreaking, web-based work Out My Window, by the National Film Board of Canada, that offers glimpses of lives within housing developments: Zanillya Maria […]

Video: Professor Laurence Packer on why and how to make your garden bee-friendly

Without bees, we wouldn’t have coffee to drink at breakfast, tomatoes in your sandwich at lunch or fruit for a snack on the go. While bee populations all over the world are in trouble, there are lots of things individuals can do to create bee-friendly gardens — even if your personal green space is limited […]

York Centre for Education & Community's 2010 Summer Institute to explore engaged education

How can schools and communities work together to create innovative avenues to engage students in their education? That is the central theme of this year’s Summer Institute offered by the York Centre for Education & Community (YCEC) in the Faculty of Education. Presented Aug. 17, 18 and 19 at York’s Keele campus, this year’s program […]

Professor Carl James on breaking the cycle of violence in Toronto's Flemingdon Park neighbourhood

The slayings in Flemingdon Park this summer have brought a shadow of violence back to a community where, on the surface, it appeared to have lifted, wrote The Globe and Mail Aug. 3: Flemingdon Park is one of Toronto’s “priority” areas. Census data from 2001 showed that 71 per cent of the 22,000 residents were […]