CFP [Due – Jan 30]: Under Currents | Journal of Critical Environmental Studies

Special Issue on Environmental Justice

Over thirty years has passed since community activists gathered together and fought back against toxic dumping in their town of Afton in Warren County, North Carolina. The decades-long resistance that took place in Warren County marked the founding of the environmental justice movement in the United States, a movement that, to this day, is predominantly led by women of colour. The framework of environmental justice has since been adopted and adapted in activist and academic circles around the world. However, though environmental justice is a relatively new term, the idea is centuries old. As Agyeman et al. point out, Indigenous peoples on the land now called Canada have long been “articulating environmental injustices in relation to loss of land, Aboriginal title, and devastation of their traditional territories and the life forms they support” (7). This issue of UnderCurrents therefore encourages broad and inclusive interpretations of environmental justice as a tool for expressing intersections and alliances between social and environmental movements.

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Call for Applications [Due – April 1]: Guelph MSc in Capacity Development & Extension

The MSc in Capacity Development & Extension at the University of Guelph is aimed at students interested in acquiring the theoretical foundation and applied interdisciplinary skills for agricultural knowledge management, rural and environmental communication, adult learning, organizational change and leadership.

Unique in Canada, CDE is a research-oriented program, designed with two kinds of student in mind: 1) those interested in the scholarly study of knowledge management and learning processes for agricultural, rural and remote communities in Canada and/or internationally; and 2) mid-career educators, community activists and communicators interested in familiarizing themselves with the scholarly literature in this field and in pursuing a specific research project. While some previous study or work related to local or international community development experience is preferred, this is not a requirement for entry into the MSc in Capacity Development & Extension Studies, and we welcome applicants of all disciplinary and professional backgrounds.

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CFP [Due – Jan 5]: York Symposium on the Scholarship of Engagement

The Vice President Research & Innovation, along with the Knowledge Mobilization Unit, will be hosting the second York Symposium on the Scholarship of Engagement in April 2015. The Symposium will both explore the scholarship of engagement and help to further strengthen York’s work in this area. The event will focus on the methodology of community engaged scholarship. We invite papers, short films and works of art that reflect on the following themes:

Theory – Explorations of the theories of engaged scholarship
Process – Models and approaches used when conducting engaged scholarship
Outcomes – The impacts and developments of engaged scholarship
Persisting Questions – The most puzzling questions that continue to provoke dialogue amongst community-engaged researchers

Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday January 5, 2015

Please see the flyer above or visit this link for more guiding questions and submission details.

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Kendra Coulter discusses the fight for paid sick leave | The Current

A Conference Board of Canada study last year found only a third of employees between the ages of 18 and 24 have any paid sick days; and fewer than half of Canadians young and old are covered by employer sick leave.

In the U.S., there’s an active campaign to improve sick day benefits, and its gaining momentum. There, nearly 40% of private sector employees have no access to paid sick leave for themselves or to take care of a sick relative.

Last week, voters in the state of Massachusetts and the cities of Trenton and Montclair in New Jersey and Oakland, California voted for everyone to get the benefit of paid sick leave. So far, 3 U.S. states and 15 cities have agreed to similar legislation.

To examine the different laws and realities in Canada surrounding sick leave, Kendra Coulter was interviewed on CBC’s “The Current”. Dr. Coulter is an Associate Professor at the Brock Centre for Labour Studies and author of “Revolutionizing Retail: Workers, Political Action and Social Change“.

Listen to the pod cast or read more

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Passion for animals in research and teaching | Brock News

Cronin, associate professor in the Visual Arts Department in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, is sensitive to the suffering endured by abandoned cats and other animals, a passion that is evident in her research.

With winter around the corner, she recently put out a social media plea to borrow a cat shelter. Staff from Brock’s Facilities Management responded. They had already used their own time to build a shelter to protect a colony of cats living along the escarpment on the campus.

It worked. The cats have been placed in permanent homes, and the compartmentalized shelter now sits on the front porch of Cronin’s home.

Cronin’s passion for animals blends seamlessly into her research and teaching.

She is completing a book that examines how art imagery from 1880 to the First World War was an important tool to promote animal advocacy. Her research took her to Boston, New York City and London, “richly historic places in the animal welfare movement.”

Assembling the research material was surprisingly difficult.

“I was feeling a little like Nancy Drew,” she said, “trying to discover and bring together literature and images that weren’t catalogued. It was clear that animal advocacy isn’t valued, because it hasn’t been archived.”

But what did impress her was the “sophisticated understanding of the importance of images and the impact on how people thought about animals in the second half of the 19th century.” Last year she curated an online exhibit – Be Kind: A Visual History of Humane Education, 1880-1945 – exploring the relationship between humans and animals.

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SJRI affiliate named German research ambassador | Brock News

Historian Michael Driedger has added a new title to his many specialties: research ambassador. Driedger has been selected to serve as research ambassador during the 2014-2015 academic year for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), an organization that promotes research in Germany and abroad using German funds.

“I’m really glad. For me, it’s a chance to pay back to the German government and German universities for the kind of support that I’ve received in the past,” says Driedger, who specializes in the history of Dutch and German Mennonites.

Driedger joins about 100 researchers across North America who are tasked with encouraging colleagues and students to conduct research in Germany and to apply for the many funding programs available to North American scientists and academics.

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Film screening [Dec 4]: Polytechnique

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Montréal massacre, the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies will be screening “Polytechnique”, followed by discussion.

Please join us on Thursday, December 4th at 12:00 – 2:00 pm in PLZ 410.

This event is co-sponsored by A Safer Brock, The Student Justice Centre, OPIRG, The Office of Human Rights, and Equity Services.

Refreshments provided by “Fed Up.”

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Event [Nov 28]: “Blackface” is racist!

Come learn why “Blackfacing” is offensive.

Nov 28th, 5-7pm in AS 201

With presentations by Tamari Kitossa and Ismaël Traoré and discussions with Brock students.

Several open letters from Brock University have been circulated in response to this and previous incidents of discrimination on campus, please visit the following links for more information:

Sociology

Labour Studies

President Jack Lightstone

DART 4F90 Honours Seminar

Brock Students for Animal Liberation

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SJRI Event [Dec 4]: Art, Archives and Affinities

Art, Archives and Affinities: Exploring Social Justice across Disciplinary Boundaries

December 4, 2014 at 3pm
Mahtay Café, 241 St. Paul St., St. Catharines

Please come out and join us!

For more information, visit the event page on Facebook or contact Maria Callaghan.

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Talk [Nov 27]: Work, Wealth, and Advocacy Journalism with Sara Mohtehedzadeh

Sara Mohtehedzadeh is the Toronto Star’s new work and wealth reporter, a position funded by the Atkinson Foundation.

Sara’s journalism examines what makes work decent for different generations, fields and cultures and explores ways to develop a more equitable and sustainable economy.

She will talk to students about careers in journalism and
the future of social justice/ advocacy journalism.

November 27, 2014 at 3:00pm in PLAZA 600F

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