EDGES contributes to the UBC Design Challenge
Earlier this fall the EDGES team contributed to the design and implementation of the inaugural UBC Design Challenge – new initiative that applies a strategic design method to social, cultural, environmental and economic issues. This cross-campus pilot program experiments with a ‘learn-in-studio’ approach for students, faculty, private and public partners to collaborate, break down and respond to […]
EDGES members receive multiple awards in 2015
Strong finish to 2015 for the members of the EDGES team! Earlier this Fall, Nicole Wilson received the prestigious Vanier Graduate Scholarship. More recently, both Scott McKenzie and Emma Luker received the International WaTERS Graduate Fellowships which will fund their research projects in South Africa. Emma also received the SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement which will support […]
New Pub: Ford, McDowell and Pearce, The Adaptation Challenge in the Arctic
Ford, J. D., McDowell, G., & T., Pearce (2015) The adaptation challenge in the Arctic. Nature Climate Change 5(12): 1046–1053. http://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2723 Abstract: It is commonly asserted that human communities in the Arctic are highly vulnerable to climate change, with the magnitude of projected impacts limiting their ability to adapt. At the same time, an increasing number of field […]
New Pub: Harris, Phartiyal, Scott, Peloso, Women Talking about Water
Harris, L., Phartiyal, J., Scott, D. and M. Peloso (2015) Women Talking about Water: Feminist Subjectivities and Intersectional Understandings. Canadian Women’s Studies Journal, Les Cahiers de la Femme, Special Issue on Women and Water, 30(2/3): 15-24 Abstract: (en) Based on focus groups with women in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and B.C, we analyze key themes as […]
Crystal Tremblay’s visit at ILAS featured in the news
Sin, NUI Galway’s online student newspaper, recently published a story on Crystal Tremblay‘s research. Earlier this fall, Crystal attended ILAS to present the methodology and initial findings of the study she conducted using participatory video-based research entitled, ‘Participatory Water Governance in Urban Africa: Building Citizenship through Participatory Video’. Dr Tremblay focused more specifically on how the communities of informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa and […]
Congratulations to Sameer Shah!
Join us in congratulating EDGES member Sameer Shah for his successful completion of the MSc program at IRES! During his Master’s, Sameer worked with Drs. Leila Harris and Hisham Zerriffi on the intersection of farming livelihoods, changes in water access, and adaptation in the Philippines. Sameer’s Master’s thesis is titled “Water variability, livelihoods, and adaptation : a case study […]
New Pub: McKenzie, Governing Transboundary Waters
McKenzie, S. O. (2015) Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities. The AAG Review of Books, 3(4): 187-189, DOI: 10.1080/2325548X.2015.1077435
Graham McDowell at the Mountains of Our Future Earth Conference
On October 7th, EDGES and Program on Water Governance member Graham McDowell presented at the Mountains of our Future Earth conference in Perth, Scotland. The conference was part of the larger Future Earth programme, which aims to develop knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change. This event sought to advance […]
UBC Dialogues event on water
Great turn out last night at the UBC Dialogues panel on the state of our water resources, featuring (from left to right on the photo) CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe, Vice Chair of the Canadian Water Network Margaret Catley-Carlson, UBC Geography Professor Simon Donner, filmmaker Damien Gillis and UBC IRES Professor and EDGES member Leila Harris. […]
Blog Post by Scott McKenzie on the Human Right to Water
Scott McKenzie, who has a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, recently wrote a blog post on the legal background of the human right to water. “The human right to water has been making steady progress. The right has become a fixture of international law and state constitutions frequently include the right. Within a framework […]
New Pub: Branch and Kleiber, Should we call them fishers or fishermen?
Branch, T. A and D. Kleiber (2015). Should we call them fishers or fishermen? Fish and Fisheries, DOI: 10.1111/faf.12130 Abstract: ‘Fishermen’ and the gender-neutral ‘fishers’ are the most common terms used to describe people who fish in the English language. However, there is a considerable debate as to which term is most appropriate. In academic journals, usage of ‘fishers’ […]
New Pub: Morales, My pipes say I am powerful
Morales, M. C. (2015) My pipes say I am powerful: belonging and class as constructed through our sewers. WIREs Water. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1108 Abstract: This review examines the social and political roots and ongoing implications of centralized, waterborne sewerage. This system has served as a marker of class, a signal of wealth and political power, and a mechanism […]
New Pub: Roa-García and Brown, Assessing equity and sustainability of water allocation in Colombia
Roa-García, M.C. and S. Brown (2015). Assessing equity and sustainability of water allocation in Colombia. Local Environment. DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2015.1070816 Abstract: Based on the national database of 28,104 water rights (concessions) granted in Colombia, this paper presents an analysis of how the principles of equity and sustainability are reflected in water allocation. Concessions appear to be an exclusionary mechanism since […]
Congratulations to Nicole and Scott!
The EDGES team is happy to announce that two of our members have recently received awards for their academic achievements. Nicole Wilson received the prestigious UBC Killam doctoral award for 2015-2016 while Scott McKenzie received the C.D. Howe Graduate Fellowship in Public Policy and Walter W Jeffrey Memorial Scholarship for Water Resources. Congrats to both of you and good luck in […]
New Pub: Harris, Rodina and Morinville, Revisiting the Human Right to Water
Harris, L., Rodina, L. & C. Morinville (2015). Revisiting the Human Right to Water from an Environmental Justice Lens. Politics, Groups and Identities 3(4): 660-665. Abstract: In this essay we investigate the discourses around the Human Right to Water (HRW) and the growing acceptance of the importance of this right in environmental justice (EJ) agendas. We argue that there is […]
EVENT: People of the Land: Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance
People of the Land: Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance September 22-23, 2015 UBC | Unceded Coast Salish Territory People of the Land: Dialogue series with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance will bring together two Indigenous leaders from the Mapuche Nation –Alberto Curamil and Miguel Melin– with Indigenous activists and scholars from North America to […]
EDGES welcomes new team members!
The EDGES team is pleased to welcome four new members this Fall – Julian S. Yates, Graham McDowell, Emma Luker and Noal Amir. Julian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at IRES, working on the rollout of small-scale water filtration facilities among BC’s First Nations communities – an approach that gained political expediency due to the recently introduced Water […]
Sameer Shah joins SYPC as a regional representative
Sameer recently bacame a Pacific “Regional Representative” for the Canadian Water Network’s Student and Young Professional Committee. Regional representatives are responsible for both organizing and participating in Canadian Water Network events held in the area. Amongst the benefits of organizing and participating in events, this 18 month position offers an opportunity to collaborate with water researchers and […]
New book on Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships
We are happy to share the recent UNESCO Chair on Community-based Research open-source publication “Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives‘, co-published by PRIA and University of Victoria Press. Here is an excerpt from the foreword: “Research partnerships are key to ensuring a dynamic and collaborative research agenda and to breaking free from traditional disciplinary and other boundaries […]
Lucy Rodina at the ISEE conference in Kiel, Germany
Lucy Rodina recently presented at the annual conference of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, held in Kiel, Germany from July 22 to 23, 2015. At the conference, Lucy represented both the EDGES research collaborative as well as the Water Ethics Network in which she has been involved since 2012 as a social media outreach manager. Lucy presented […]
New Pub: Tremblay and Jayme, Community knowledge co-creation through participatory video
Tremblay, C and B. Jayme (2015). Community knowledge co-creation through participatory video. Journal of Action Research 13(3): 298-314. Abstract: This article describes the process and outcomes of a participatory video project with 22 catadore/as (‘recyclers’) from recycling cooperatives in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil. During a week-long workshop (April 2008), leaders from participating cooperatives were […]
Upcoming talk by Crystal Tremblay on water governance in urban Africa
Crystal Tremblay will be presenting at an upcoming event (Sept 21) on Water Governance in Urban Africa: Building Citizenship Through Participatory Video at the University of Brighton. She will be covering two topics: 1. Book launch ‘Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives’ 2. Water Governance in Urban Africa – researching using participatory video Crystal will […]
New Pub: Dunn, Harris and Bakker, Microbial risk governance in Canada
Dunn, G., Harris, L. and K. Bakker (2015) Microbial Risk Governance: Challenges and Opportunities in Canada. Canadian Water Resources Journal 40(3): 273-249 Abstract: This paper analyzes the barriers and opportunities that decentralized water governance regimes pose to effective microbial risk assessment and management for drinking and recreational water quality. The paper presents a case study of Canada (a country […]
Annotated Bibliography on Indigenous Water Governance in BC by Rosie Simms
As part of her work for the WEPGN project and PoWG, EDGES alumna Rosie Simms prepared a new annotated bibliography on indigenous water governance in BC. This annotated bibliography summarizes literature on key topic areas relating to Indigenous water governance, with a primary geographic focus on British Columbia and Canada. This is a critical thematic […]
Nicole Wilson at the IASC conference in Edmonton
Nicole Wilson (PhD student in IRES) and Jody Inkster (Environmental Manager at the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council and a Ross River Dena Council citizen) presented on Community-Based Water Quality Monitoring among Alaska Native Tribes and First Nations in the Yukon River Basin at the 15th Biennial Global Conference for the International Association for the […]
EDGES welcomes new student – Emma Luker
The EDGES collective is pleased to welcome a new member – Emma Luker! Emma is starting her Master of Arts program in Resource Management and Environmental Studies in the Fall, funded by NSERC’s Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. She will be working under the supervisorship of Drs. Leila Harris and Mark Johnson. Emma graduated […]
EDGES welcomes 3 new summer research assistants
This summer, three new research assistants are joining the EDGES team. Welcome Iesha, Andrew and Jesse! Iesha Iesha Yue Wan Zhao Yuan is an undergraduate student in Bio-resource/Environmental Engineering at McGill university, studying environmental engineering with a focus on water resources. At McGill, she has worked in a bio-char research and in water-soil quality lab. […]
Rosie Simms awarded the Freda Pagani Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award
Congratulations to EDGES alumna Rosie Simms for the outstanding Master’s thesis award! The Freda Pagani Award have been endowed by family and friends for graduate students in Resource Management and Environmental Studies (RMES) for outstanding thesis work. Rosie did her Master’s work under the supervision of Leila Harris on water governance in First Nations communities […]
New Publication: Harris, Hegemonic Water and Rethinking Natures Otherwise
Harris, L. (2015) Hegemonic Water and Rethinking Natures Otherwise. In: W. Harcourt and I. L. Nelson (Eds) Practicing Feminist Political Ecologies. Zed Books: London, pp. 157-181. Destined to transform its field, this volume features some of the most exciting feminist scholars and activists working within feminist political ecology, including Giovanna Di Chiro, Dianne Rocheleau, Catherine Walsh and […]
New Book: A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change
A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change came out on March 11, 2015. The book is edited by S. Buechler and A M S Hanson, with foreword by Leila Harris. This volume is a excellent read for everyone interested in feminist politicly ecology approaches to water governance and global environmental change. This edited […]
New Publication: Harris, Deconstructing the Map after 25 Years
A piece by Leila Harris was published in the most recent Special Issue of the journal Cartographica on “Deconstructing the Map”: 25 Years On. This special issue marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of J.B. Harley’s “Deconstructing the Map” (1989), which has had a major influence in the fields of critical cartography, the history of cartography, and […]
EDGES work featured in SUPE
Situated Urban Political Ecologies (or SUPE) is a research collective and a platform for research projects and activities that relate to situated ecologies and contested ecologies viewed through the lens of urbanization. The work of this collective draws on the field of political ecology and related disciplines (e.g., human and critical geography, STS, and environmental history) concerned […]
Trevor Birkenholtz visits UBC this week
Dr. Birkenholtz is a cultural and political ecologist and development geographer. His work attempts to link the political economy of access to and control over environmental resources, and ecological change (political ecology), to issues of technology, knowledge, and social power, more typical of research in science and technology studies (STS). To date, he has advanced […]
Video: Crystal Tremblay’s work in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
During the most recent stage of the project, Dr Crystal Tremblay, postdoctoral researcher, visited Cape Town in November and December 2014. The major focus of Crystal’s work is to involve local communities in a participatory video project, with focus on water and sanitation related issues. She did some initial work with the Iliso Care society in Khayelitsha […]
E&S Special Issue on Urban Water Governance
Ecology and Society published a special issue on Urban Water Governance, featuring work by EDGES members and other colleagues from the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability. All the articles, and the journal itself, as open access and available free online HERE. The list of titles includes: The notion of sewage as waste: a study of […]
CfP: “Water Science and Policy in Canada” at CAG 2015
Kiely McFarlane and Leila Harris are co-hosting a special session on Water Science and Policy in Canada at tat the Canadian Association of Geographers’ Annual Meeting hosted by Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC in June this year. Session description: Canada has experienced significant changes in the way its water resources are managed and governed over the last 20 years. […]
New Publication: Morales, Harris and Oberg, Citizenshit: the right to flush and the urban sanitation imaginary
del Carmen Morales M, Harris L., and G. Öberg (2014) Citizenshit: the right to flush and the urban sanitation imaginary. Environment and Planning A, 46(12): 2816 – 2833. Abstract: For many in the Global North, urban life means that your shit is not your problem. We postulate that a possible reason for the global sanitation failure in […]
CfP: ‘Resilience and Water Governance’ Special Session at CAG 2015
EDGES members Lucy Rodina and Sameer Shah are co-hosting a special session on Resilience and Water Governance at the Canadian Association of Geographers’ Annual Meeting hosted by Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC in June this year. Session description: Population growth and environmental change will have impacts on water quality, quantity, and availability around the world carrying significant […]
New Publication: Gutberlet and Tremblay, The Community-Based Research Tradition in Latin America
Gutberlet, J., Tremblay C. and C. Moraes (2014). The Community-Based Research Tradition in Latin America. In: R. Munck, L. MacIlrath, B. Hall and R. Tandon (Eds). Higher Education and Community Based Research. Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK. Abstract: This chapter captures insights from the long tradition Latin American intellectuals and practitioners have had with participatory and action- oriented research. […]
Media Release: Building community research partnerships worldwide
University World News recently released a feature on a global study of community-university research partnerships led by the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education. EDGES member and IRES post-doc Crystal Tremblay is one of the researchers involved in this project. “Crystal Tremblay, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia […]