News

Department Administrative Coordinator reaches Employee Service Milestone!

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 | By AlyssaB

This week our “GeoMom” Virginia Wagg reached her 25 year milestone working at Brock University. Virginia consistently offers an exceptional level of service to both students and faculty, and does with grace and a smile. Her helpfulness, attention to detail and cheery disposition means that everyone who comes into contact with her walks away feeling like they were listened to and helped. She really is the best!

Congratulations Virginia, from all your friends and colleagues in the Department of Geography and Tourism!

Categories: News
Just in time for Christmas! Book celebrates work of late Brock cartographer

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 | By AlyssaB

Want a Christmas present for that history or geography buff who has everything?!

Alun Hughes, a longtime member of Brock’s Department of Geography, had an enormous appetite for local history.

Between 2003 and his untimely death in 2013, the trained cartographer wrote extensively about the geography and history of the Niagara region.

Hoping to honour his passion, Hughes’ former colleagues have come together to release a book of his essays, History Made in Niagara. The book was compiled by Hughes’ former colleagues from the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, Professors Mike Ripmeester and David Butz and retired cartographer Loris Gasparotto.

History Made in Niagara can be purchased at the launch for $35 (cash only) through the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies

For more information about the book, please call 905-688-5550 x3484.

Categories: Events, News
Congratulations to MA Geography student Danielle Martineau

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 | By AlyssaB

Congratulations to Geography MA student Danielle Martineau on the successful completion of her MRP, titled “The Systematic Examination of Significant Thematic Overlap between Digital Geographies Literature and Digital Educational Literature when Considering the ‘Smart Classroom’,” as well as on the successful completion of all requirements for the MA in Geography.

Congratulations and thank you as well to Danielle’s supervisory committee, Supervisor Dr. Jeff Boggs and Second reader Dr. Catherine Nash.

Categories: News
Congratulations to Katelyn Pierce on the successful completion of her MA in Geography thesis defense

Wednesday, November 20, 2019 | By AlyssaB

The Department of Geography and Tourism Studies would like to extend congratulations to Katelyn Pierce and her committee for the successful defense on Oct. 24th of her Master of Arts in Geography thesis entitled “Detached from Our Bodies: Representing women’s mental health and well-being with graphic memoirs”.

Katelyn’s research was supervised by Dr. Ebru Ustundag, and committee members, Dr. Jeffrey Boggs and Dr. Neta Gordon. Many thanks to External Examiner, Dr. Kate Parizeau (Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph).

We wish Katelyn all the best for her future endeavours!

Categories: News, Uncategorised
MA in Geography thesis defence scheduled for Oct. 24: “Detached from Our Bodies: Representing women’s mental health and well-being with graphic memoirs” by Katelyn Pierce

Thursday, October 17, 2019 | By AlyssaB

Katelyn Pierce will defend her MA thesis titled “Detached from Our Bodies: Representing women’s mental health and well-being with graphic memoirs” on Oct. 24, 2019 at 2:00pm. The defense will take place in Sankey Chamber and is open to the public.

Katelyn Pierce’s Examining Committee includes Dr. Kate Parizeau from the University of Guelph (External), Dr. Ebru Ustundag (Supervisor), Dr. Jeffrey Boggs (Committee Member), and Dr. Neta Gordon (Committee Member).

Categories: Events, News
New book: The Geographies of Digital Sexuality

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | By Samantha Morris

In May, Drs. Catherine Jean Nash and Andrew Gorman-Murray (editors) published a new book titled The Geographies of Digital Sexuality.

About the Book
This edited book engages with the rapidly emerging field of the geographies of digital sexualities, that is, the interlinkages between sexual lives, material and virtual geographies and digital practices. Modern life is increasingly characterised by our integrated engagement in digital/material landscapes activities and our intimate life online can no longer be conceptualised as discrete from ‘real life.’ Our digital lives are experienced as a material embeddedness in the spaces of everyday life marking the complex integration of real and digital geographies. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in the ways that our social and sexual practices such as dating or casual sex are bound up online and online geographies and in many cases constitute specific sexuality-based communities crossing the digital/material divide. The aim of this collection is to explore the complexities of these newly constituted and interwoven sexual and gender landscapes through empirical, theoretical and conceptual engagements through wide-ranging, innovative and original research in a new and quickly moving field.

Citation: Nash, C.J., and Gorman-Murray, A. (Eds.) 2019. The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillian, Singapore. DOI 978-981-13-6876-9

Read more.

Tags: book, Catherine Nash, geography, Human Geography, research
Categories: News
Book celebrates work of late Brock cartographer

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | By Samantha Morris

STORY REPOSTED FROM THE BROCK NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2019 | by The Brock News

Alun Hughes.

Alun Hughes, a longtime member of Brock’s Department of Geography, had an enormous appetite for local history.

Between 2003 and his untimely death in 2013, the trained cartographer wrote extensively about the geography and history of the Niagara region.

Hoping to honour his passion, Hughes’ former colleagues have come together to release a book of his essays, History Made in Niagara, and will host a launch for the publication on Wednesday, May 29.

The book was compiled by Hughes’ former colleagues from the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, Professors Mike Ripmeester and David Butz and retired cartographer Loris Gasparotto.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free event, to be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at Brock’s Pond Inlet.

History Made in Niagara can be purchased at the launch for $35 (cash only).

More information about the event can be found on ExperienceBU or by calling 905-688-5550 x3484.

Tags: Alun Hughes, book, David Butz, historical geography, History Made in Niagara, Loris Gasparotto, Michael Ripmeester
Categories: News
Julia Baird selected as finalist for Water’s Next award

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | By Samantha Morris

The Department of Geography and Tourism Studies would like to congratulate Dr. Julia Baird for being selected as a finalist for a 2019 Water’s Next award. This “awards program honours the incredible achievements and ideas of individuals and companies that successfully work to make a positive change to water in our country and abroad”. Dr. Baird was selected as a finalist in the People – Academic category.

More information is available here.

Tags: awards, Julia Baird, water
Categories: News
Studying sustainable transportation in Sweden

Monday, July 29, 2019 | By Samantha Morris

Dr. Christopher Fullerton spent part of March in Sweden exploring experiences with electric public transit buses. Here are a few photos from his trip and a reflection from Dr. Fullerton’s second day in Gothenburg:

“I spent the afternoon at the Lindholmen Science Park learning about Gothenburg’s ElectriCity project, where they are piloting the use of electric buses on two routes and conducting research about all aspects of electric buses. These pictures show their innovative indoor bus stop. It’s a climate controlled building where the bus pulls in at the end of the route, the doors close, the bus’ battery charges in nine minutes, and then the doors open for the bus to leave on its next run. In the meantime, you can wait for the bus in a heated or air conditioned setting, read a book at their mini library or sit in some cool hanging chairs, all the while listening to a recording of birds chirping! When one bus leaves, the next one to arrive pulls in and does the same! Great idea for cities with cold or hot climates, and something that’s much easier to do with quiet and emission-free electric buses.”

Tags: Chris Fullerton, fieldwork, International, research, Sustainability, Transportation
Categories: News
Student researcher explores future of electric buses in Canada

Friday, July 26, 2019 | By Samantha Morris

REPOSTED FROM THE BROCK NEWS
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2019 | by Cathy Majtenyi

Master’s student Tasnuva Afreen (right) and her supervisor, Associate Professor of Geography and Tourism Studies Christopher Fullerton (left), stand in front of a demonstration electric bus displayed at a conference. Afreen and Fullerton, along with the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, set up an internship with the non-profit funding agency Mitacs for Afreen to research the adoption of electric buses across Canada.

It’s a simple, logical way to cut down on air and noise pollution.

Electric buses don’t emit carbon or use fossil fuels, are low cost to maintain and, by the silent way they operate, reduce noise pollution compared to conventional buses.

But replacing current buses with electricity-powered ones is easier said than done, says master’s student Tasnuva Afreen.

Afreen recently wrapped up an eight-month internship with the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) to collect and interpret information related to transit authorities’ transition to electric buses.

“Now we’re trying to connect the dots,” says Afreen, who is in Brock’s Sustainability Science and Society program. “We hope to bring out what Canadians think of electric buses and identify the main barriers to bringing electric buses to transit authorities’ fleets.”

Afreen, Associate Professor of Geography and Tourism Studies Christopher Fullertonand CUTRIC created the internship through the not-for-profit national research organization Mitacs.

Mitacs partners with academics, private industry and governments to conduct research and training programs related to industrial and social innovation. The organization funds a number of research projects at Brock University.

During her internship, Afreen organized consultations with industry representatives, transit authorities, government officials and academic researchers.

She and her CUTRIC colleagues asked participants a series of questions about transit authorities’ experiences and challenges of experimenting with electric buses and the knowledge they need to acquire and integrate hydrogen fuel cell vehicles into their fleets.

Afreen also asked transit riders to share their opinions on and experiences with electric buses.

She then transcribed the consultation sessions and analyzed the comments. Afreen also gathered information on how to test electric buses in nine municipalities that expressed interest in becoming demonstration trial sites.

Although she and Fullerton are still analyzing the data, Afreen says her preliminary results show that there’s much interest in putting electric buses on the road.

But there are a number of barriers to overcome, she says.

“Municipalities have to redesign their infrastructure to provide electric lines so that buses can recharge very quickly,” says Afreen. “Also, the upfront expense is huge — a lot of transit agencies don’t have the money in their pocket to go for this.”

Fullerton, Afreen’s supervisor, says the research she conducted will lay the groundwork for CUTRIC’s efforts to encourage the adoption of electric buses across Canada.

“While it has already demonstrated clear environmental, social and economic benefits in other parts of the world, electric bus technology is still relatively new and adopting it represents a major funding commitment,” says Fullerton.

“Public transit agencies and other stakeholders, such as the various levels of government that provide subsidies for transit infrastructure, want to make sure that the technology is reliable and that their money is well spent,” he says, adding that Afreen’s work helps identify stakeholders’ concerns and information needs.

Afreen will share her Mitacs-supported internship experience at Brock’s Shift Conference Tuesday, April 30 and the Launch Forum Wednesday, May 1. Mitacs Director Rebecca Bourque and Office of Research Services staff will be join Afreen at Launch in the 10 to 11:30 a.m. session in the Cairns Atrium to explore how faculty member and graduate student teams can navigate Mitacs internship opportunities.

“Mitacs internships offer graduate students a valuable experience working with industry or community organizations,” says Industry Liaison and Partnership Officer Iva Bruhova. “It is a chance to apply their research skills and gain employment-ready skills.”

In addition to the Mitacs session, the Launch event offers two other sessions on how faculty and staff can support graduate students through designing individual development plans.

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Tags: Chris Fullerton, graduate studies, research, Transportation
Categories: News