​

Urban Geography - Research and Practice

Organizer: Evan Cleave (Ryerson University)

 

Sponsored by: Urban Geography Study Group

 

The Urban Geography Study Group is organizing paper sessions for the 2022 CAG Annual Meeting, which will run virtually from May 30 to June 3, 2022.  For these sessions, we are seeking papers covering a wide range of urban-related topics –historical and contemporary, local and global, as well as situated in Canadian and non-Canadian contexts. The aim of these sessions is to present a range of theoretical and conceptual perspectives and methodological approaches. Broad, inter-related themes include (but are not limited to):

 

Issues facing Cities (in both contemporary and historical contexts)

• Urban crisis, response, and resilience (i.e. impacts and response to Covid-19, natural disasters, climate change, economic change)

• Housing and real estate

• Political-economic issues and their effect on cities

• Transportation and infrastructure

• The urban environment and sustainability

 

Peoples of Cities

• Social issues and cities (i.e. policing, racism, poverty, marginalization)

• Population growth, decline, and aging

• Issues related to public health and wellbeing

• Social welfare in an urban context

• Immigration and cities

 

Urban Governance and Planning

• Governance and its impact on planning, policy and development

• Approaches to quantifying/measuring planning and policy outcomes

• Evidenced-based planning

• Sustainable cities - planning and practice

 

Urban Economy

• Issues related to local economic development planning, policy, and practice

• Integrating economic development and urban development/planning

• Contemporary economic challenges and opportunities facing cities

• Cities in a global capitalist system

 

Please send your paper title and abstract (maximum 250 words; and up to five key words) to Evan Cleave at evan.cleave@ryerson.ca by April 15, 2022. Please note: to participate in the special sessions, you are also required to register for CAG 2022 and submit your abstract through the conference system.

​

​

Special Sessions Related to Economic Geography

Organizer: Jesse Sutton (Western University); Co-Organizer: Evan Cleave (Ryerson University)

 

We are organizing a paper session for the 2022 CAG Annual Meeting, which will run virtually from May 30 to June 3, 2022.

 

For this session, we seek papers covering economic geography focused on contemporary and historical issues related to local, regional, and national economies in North America and abroad. This session aims to present theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical papers that further our current understanding of economic geography. All themes related to economic geography are welcome. Although not limited to, potential topics include:

 

Local economies

• Housing costs and supply

• Economic shocks, including the 2008 Great Recession, Brexit, and COVID-9 pandemic and the following 2020 economic crisis

• Local economic resilience and sustainability

• Local economic development practices

 

Regional economies

• Outmigration, migration, and immigration

• Labour force supply and skills mismatch

• Regional governance and policy

• Regional collaborative and cooperative development

• Domestic tourism

 

National economies

• Governance, politics, and policies

• Globalization and neoliberalism

• Free trade agreements and international integration (e.g., CUSMA)

• Sustainable cities - planning and practice

 

Other topics related to local, regional and national economies are welcome.

 

Please send your paper title and abstract (maximum 250 words; and up to five keywords) to Jesse Sutton (jsutto22@uwo.ca) or Evan Cleave at evan.cleave@ryerson.ca. Please note: to participate in the special sessions, you must register for CAG 2021 and submit your abstract through the conference system by April 15, 2022.

​

​

Geographies of Health and Health Care

Organizers: Jenna Dixon (University of British Columbia); Vincent Kuuire (University of Toronto Missisauga)

 

Sponsored by: Geographies of Health and Health Care Study Group

 

Papers in this session will cover the full spectrum of topical and methodological approaches in health and medical geography in Canada and beyond. Papers can be conceptual or empirical, and can cover any aspect of health geography including health perceptions and experiences, health promotion and population health, environment and health, migration and health, chronic disease prevention, social determinants of health and health inequities, health and health care services, environment and ecosystem health, critical health geographies, healthy aging, urban health, global health, infectious disease modeling, GIS, historical geographies of health, and any other health-related geographical investigation. Based on contributors, sessions will be organized by theme where possible.

 

For more information, please contact Jenna Dixon (jenna.dixon@ubc.ca).

​

​

Times of Displacement

Organizer: Yolanda Weima 

Discussant: Professor Jennifer Hyndman

 

Displacement may now be “now one of the most frequently-invoked concepts in human geography” (Elliott-Cooper, Hubbard, & Lees, 2020, p. 492). The term has salience across and beyond disciplines, as the current era has been called an “age of displacement” (McGrath & Young, 2019), with particular salience in the interdisciplinary fields of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies, but also urban studies, historical geography, and critical political ecology (Pull, Lind, Tsoni, & Baeten, 2020). While it is often evoked, displacement is less often explicitly and critically theorized (though see Elliot-Cooper et al, 2020; Pull et al, 2020).

 

Doreen Massey and other geographers have highlighted that space cannot be separated from time: space is always space-time. What does thinking about time as well as space mean for how we think about the process of displacement? While displacement is sometimes framed as a locational phenomenon, time is also important to how displacement is experienced and governed. Possible considerations of the “times” of displacement include waiting, temporariness, recurrence, endurance, accumulation, protraction, extension, haunting, afterlives, short-term emergency operations, “permanent” durable solutions, future-oriented hopes or uncertainties, and the disrupting temporal experiences of trauma (Belloni & Massa, 2021; Hyndman & Giles, 2017; Oginni, 2021; Subulwa, 2013; Ehrkamp, Loyd, & Secor, 2021; Ramsay, 2020; Ramsay & Askland, 2020; Boochani, 2018).

 

Abstracts are invited for papers which foreground and consider “times” of displacement. Case studies from graduate research are particularly welcome.

 

To participate in this session or for more information, please contact Yolanda Weima (weima@yorku.ca).

​

​

Environment and Resources Study Group (ERSG) Special Session

Organizer: Jonathan Luedee (University of Toronto)

 

Sponsored by: Environment and Resources Study Group

 

The Environment and Resources Study Group (ERSG) will organize paper sessions for the CAG's virtual conference, which will be hosted by X* University from May 30 – June 3, 2022. Sessions will be organized around the following topics: 

 

• The human dimensions of environmental change

• Critical geographies of environmental governance and resource management

• The environmental politics of sustainability  

• Resource extraction, colonialism, and resistance

• Toxic geographies: discards, contaminants, waste, and pollution

• The geographies of energy transition

• Infrastructures of extractivism 

• Culture, communities, and resources 

• Resource Temporalities

 

This list is not exhaustive and the ERSG welcomes papers that address any aspect of environmental and resource geographies. 

 

If you are interested in participating in an ERSG-sponsored session, please submit a 250-word (max) abstract to Jonathan Luedee (jonathan.luedee@utoronto.ca) by March 27, 2022. The organizers will inform presenters of their inclusion in one of the ERSG sessions prior to the individual submission deadline.

 

Membership in the ERSG is free for students and postdocs. To become a member, please email to Kathryn Laferriere (info@cag-acg.ca) with a request to be added to the study group. Other CAG members can email Kathryn to request an invoice to pay dues for SG membership.

​

​

Geospatial Data Science

Organizers: Jed Long (Western University), Grant McKenzie (McGill University)

​

Geography, as a discipline, is now widely viewed as being data-rich, that is there is now abundant geographic data available to studying geographical processes. In this special session on Geospatial Data Science, we invite submissions of applied, theoretical, or methods-based research using innovative techniques situated at the intersection of Geographic Information Systems and Data Science. We especially welcome researchers from undergraduate and graduate students who are using modern computational tools to study geographical problems and data. Our aim is to showcase how geospatial data and advanced computational methods are being used across the range of application areas encountered in geographical research for example (but not limited to) in urban geography, climate research, physical science, environmental geography, or transportation analysis

 

Potential areas of research may include (but are not limited to):

• Agent-based modelling

• Machine learning

• GeoAI

• CyberGIS

• Free and Open Source GIS

• ‘Big’ Models - Big data analytics

• Temporal GIS

• Trajectory analysis

• Spatial statistics

• Citizen Science

 

Those interested should contact Jed Long (jed.long@uwo.ca) at Western University.

​

​

Geographies of Asia

Organizer: Tom Waldichuk (Thompson Rivers University)

​

Sponsored by: Geographies of Asia Study Group

​

The Geographies of Asia Study Group is organizing one or more panels on Asian topics and is particularly keen on soliciting papers and posters related to the conference theme “Towards Canada 2050: Shaping the Future of Geographic and Spatial Analysis.” We request all submissions that deal with Asian countries. In particular, we encourage students to present and participate in the Geographies of Asia Student Presentation Competition. The best presentation will receive a cash prize.

 

For more information, please contact Tom Waldichuk (twaldichuk@tru.ca) at Thompson Rivers University.

​

​

International Migration in disruptive times: challenges, recovery, and renewal 

Organizers: Sutama Ghosh (X University), Luisa Veronis (University of Ottawa), Carlos Teixeira (UBC)

​

Sponsored by: Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity and Race Study Group

​

Sponsored by the DIVERSITY, MIGRATION, ETHNICITY AND RACE STUDY GROUP the session will focus on identifying the numerous challenges that have been disrupting international migration (whether voluntary or forced) in a pandemic context and changing international order, while also shedding light on opportunities for recovery and possibilities of renewal. 

 

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:    

• Mobility and Assemblages

• Border politics and migration policies 

• Impacts of the pandemic on international migration and settlement in Canadian cities 

• Pandemic, citizenship and inclusion/exclusion

• Racialization and anti-racism

• International students and internationalization of higher education 

• Labour markets, essential workers and care work 

• Access to Housing, Employment, Health Care, Food 

• Transnational migration and diasporas in disruptive times 

• Impacts of changing world order on international migration 

• Forced migration and family separation 

• Impacts of changing world order on international migration 

• Ethnic/diasporic media in pandemic times 

 

Please send an abstract of maximum 200 words to the organizers by March 28th, 2022, to: 

Sutama Ghosh, X University sutama@ryerson.ca)  

Luisa Veronis, University of Ottawa, (lveronis@uottawa.ca)

Carlos Teixeira, University of British Columbia (carlos.teixeira@ubc.ca) 

​

​

Spatial statistical analytics for environmental modelling

Organizers: Bahareh Fallah (University of Calgary); Stefania Bertazzon (University of Calgary); Alison Hanes (University of Calgary); Isabelle Couloigner (University of Calgary), Mina Nasr (Resource Stewardship Alberta Environment & Parks)

​

Our environment is changing at a remarkable pace, undergoing alterations due to both physical processes, such as natural disasters, and anthropogenic influences, including urbanization, deforestation, and industrial expansion. There exists a great wealth of data relating to these changes, the majority of which are georeferenced, providing relevant, spatially explicit information. However, the transformation of this raw data into actionable knowledge requires appropriate statistical methods equipped to conduct meaningful analysis of spatial information. Suitable analysis is important in order to detect the latent effect of processes and pressures that are driving environmental change.

 

Probability distributions, spatial patterns, hot spots, and spatial prediction are some desirable outputs of spatial statistical analysis, yet they require careful consideration. Thus, the integration of spatial analysis, remote sensing data, machine learning techniques, and temporal trend analysis can help to reveal the complex and hidden pattern in environmental data.

 

Anyone interested in the spatial statistical analytics for environmental modelling may submit an abstract for the proposed special session. We invite methodological and applied contributions that feature novel methods and implementations for modelling environmental data in a range of fields, including, but not limited to:

 

• Greenhouse gas emissions, Radon

• Fracking

• Land use and landcover

• Human an animal health implication (health risk assessment)

• Hazardous waste management

• Agriculture (crop health monitoring, crop yield predictive modeling)

• Drought monitoring and management

• Surface and groundwater management

 

If interested in participating in this session, please contact Bahareh Fallah (bahareh.shahidpourfa@ucalgary.ca).

​

​

Human, Environment and Human-Environment Research Examples using Grounded Visualization

Organizer: Chris Hewitt (University of Western Ontario)

​

Human, environment and human-environment interaction studies are interdisciplinary investigations of how people and society more broadly interact with their natural environment, in effect combining human and physical geography. For many studies, a spatial component in the form of a map or maps forms the basis for the analysis and presentation of the results. With the developments in cartography and data visualization more broadly since the mid-twentieth century however, standalone maps have given way to geovisualization including the display and combination of maps, graphs and diagrams. Geovisualization displays can include qualitative or quantitative data, depict one or many variables, be grayscale or coloured, as well as range from static displays to animated, interactive or multiscaled presentations. From these displays, theories can be derived about humans, the environment and human-environment interactions, a perspective that is termed grounded visualization. This session aims to solicit papers on humans, the environment and human-environment interactions that apply a grounded visualization approach to analyze and present their data related to a number of areas, including (but not limited to):

• Archaeology

• Conservation and Preservation

• Extreme Weather Events

• Historical Land Use

• Resource Management

• Urban Development

 

If interested in presenting in this session, or for more information please contact Chris Hewitt (chewitt6@uwo.ca).

​

​

Immigration et diversité dans les communautés francophones : un silence discursif sur la question de la cohésion Communautaire

Organisatrice de la séance spéciale : Luisa Veronis (Université d'Ottawa)

Co-organisatrices : Anne-Cécile Delaisse (UBC); Suzanne Huot (UBC)

 

Parrainé par un groupe d'étude : Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity and Race Study Group

 

Depuis les années 2000, le gouvernement fédéral a fait de l’immigration francophone une priorité pour maintenir le poids démographique des communautés francophones en situation minoritaire (CFSM). Alors que ces communautés mettaient historiquement l’emphase sur une identité ethnoculturelle partagée (combinant la langue française, une culture et une religion), se pose désormais la question de la cohésion communautaire dans un contexte de diversité grandissante.

 

Dans le cadre de cette session thématique, notre équipe présentera les résultats d’une analyse de discours critique menée sur 88 documents, publiés entre 2010 et 2021, par des institutions fédérales (Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada, Patrimoine Canada, le Commissariat aux langues officielles) et communautaires (la Société Nationale de l'Acadie et la Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada). Adoptant l’approche de Bacchi (2009), notre analyse visait à répondre à la question suivante : comment les enjeux liés à la cohésion communautaire, l’immigration et la diversité sont-ils problématisés dans les discours institutionnels qui façonnent les CFSM ?

 

Nos analyses montrent que l’immigration est présentée tantôt comme une solution évidente au déclin démographique des CFSM, tantôt comme un défi – puisque qu’elle contribue à une diversité grandissante, or ces communautés ne sont pas toujours bien équipées pour soutenir l’intégration des immigrants. Toutefois, les difficultés vécues par les immigrants passent généralement sous silence. Nos résultats soulignent l’importance de ne pas taire le sujet de la cohésion communautaire dans les discours institutionnels, mais plutôt de prendre en compte tant la voix des CFSM que celle des immigrants pour développer des pratiques plus inclusives.

 

Adresses électroniques:

 

Luisa Veronis (lveronis@uottawa.ca); Anne-Cécile Delaisse (delaisse.ac@hotmail.fr); Suzanne Huot (suzanne.huot@ubc.ca)

​

​

Perspectives on Health Geography from the verge of retirement: Dr. Mark Rosenberg

Organizers: Jenna Dixon (UBC); Vincent Kuuire (University of Toronto Mississauga)

​

Study Group Sponsor: Geographies of Health and Health Care Study Group

 

The geographies of health and health care specialty group (GHHCSG) warmly honours Dr. Mark Rosenberg as he is set to retire this coming year. Professor Rosenberg, currently a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Aging, Health and Development at Queen’s University, has had significant engagement and impact on our subdiscipline both within and beyond the Canadian borders. This includes 1999 CAG Award for Service to the Profession of Geography, supervision of 50+ graduate and postdoctoral students (many of whom have gone on to prominence in their own right), 100+ articles in refereed journals, and an extensively cited series of commentaries on health geography in Progress in Human Geography.

 

This event marks the occasion through a friendly interrogation of the Professor by a panel of young scholars. Through a series of questions and conversations, Dr. Rosenberg will reflect on the current state of health geography in Canada and globally, what significant changes he has witnessed, where he sees the future of the discipline moving, and what advice he has for young scholars.  

Join us for this light and friendly virtual gathering, as we give good wishes for retirement and take in some of his experience and wisdom. 

 

For more information on this session please contact Jenna Dixon (jenna.dixon@ubc.ca) and Vincent Kuuire (vincent.kuuire@utoronto.ca).

​

​

(Im)migration, Inequities and COVID-19

Organizers: Andrea Rishworth (University of Toronto Mississauga), Kathi Wilson (University of Toronto Mississauga), Sara Edge (X University), Jennifer Dean (University of Waterloo)

​

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, questions of who has been most affected and where interventions should be targeted increasingly uncover the disproportionate and longstanding health inequities faced by racialized and (im)migrant communities (Hooper, et al., 2020). Growing evidence consistently underscores that the higher incidence and severity of COVID-19 among racialized and immigrant groups is likely due to a confluence of historical and contemporary socioeconomic determinants, barriers to accessing care and higher prevalence of underlying medical co-morbidities (Tai et al., 2020; Khunti et al., 2020). For instance, (im)migration, economic and labour policies mean (im)migrants are overrepresented in essential, low paying and precarious work and often reside in low income, unstable housing (Williamson et al., 2020; Platt, 2020). In the context of COVID-19, this translates into incompatible public health measures, producing clusters of disease and sickness while amplifying complex socioeconomic health determinants and long-standing structural inequities among immigrant populations (Platt et al., 2020; Guadagno, 2020; Orcutt et al., 2020).

 

Despite these amplifying inequities, scant discourse, investigation, or interventions exist that address the manifestation and role of structural inequities and racism in the patterns, experiences and impacts of COVID-19 among (im)migrant populations (Orcutt et al., 2020; Greenaway, et al., 2020; Platt, 2020; Guadagno et al., 2020). Defined as “forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of colour” (Braveman, et al., 2022; 171), structural racism has intensified existing inequities and (re)shaped the experiences of and responses to (im)migration during the COVID-19 pandemic (Tuyisenge & Goldenberg, 2021; Greenaway et al., 2020). In high income countries such as Canada for example, racialized immigrants are disproportionately impacted by high rates of COVID-19, overrepresented in COVID-19 hospital admissions and experience severe gaps in health insurance eligibility (Abbas at al., 2018; Guadagno, 2020).

 

While evidence on structural inequities and racism among (im)migrant populations in Canada and other high-income countries during the pandemic consistently reveal gross health and wellbeing disparities (Abbas at al., 2018; Guadagno, 2020), as geographers, we know that the experiences, impacts and manifestations of inequity among immigrants vary across place and time, shaped and informed by sociocultural, political-economic, geopolitical and biophysical processes across scales. To this end, this session aims to provide a platform for scholars to discuss empirical, theoretical and methodological work related to (im)migration, inequities in the context of COVID-19. We invite scholars to submit papers on new and on-going work related to (im)migration, inequality and COVID-19 from a geographic perspective. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

 

• The place specific manifestations of structural inequities among (im)migrant populations

• Socio-spatial drivers and forms of power, inequity and marginalization that produce uneven health outcomes for (im)migrants

• The lived realities and embodied experiences of inequities among (im)migrants during COVID-19

• The role of COVID-19 in (re)shaping landscapes of structural racism, immigrant health dynamics and community responses

• Place-based health and wellbeing interventions for (im)migrant populations during COVID-19

 

Please email your abstracts (maximum 250 words), contact information and session title to Andrea Rishworth at andrea.rishworth@utoronto.ca by April 13th, 2022.

 

Works Cited

 

Abbas M, Aloudat T, Bartolomei J, et al. Migrant and refugee populations: a public health and policy perspective on a continuing global crisis. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2018; 7: 113.

 

Braveman, P. A., Arkin, E., Proctor, D., Kauh, T., & Holm, N. (2022). Systemic And Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, And Approaches To Dismantling: Study examines definitions, examples, health damages, and dismantling systemic and structural racism. Health Affairs, 41(2), 171-178.

 

Guadagno L. Migrants and the COVID-19 pandemic: an initial analysis. Migr Res Ser 2020; 60: 1–28.

 

Guadagno L. Migrants and the COVID-19 pandemic: An initial analysis 2020; 1–28. https://publications.iom.int/books/mrs-no-60- migrants-and-covid-19-pandemic-initial-analysis.

 

Greenaway C, Castelli F. Infectious diseases at different stages of migration: an expert review. J Travel Med 2019; 26: taz007. doi:10.1093/jtm/taz007

 

Greenaway, C., Hargreaves, S., Barkati, S., Coyle, C. M., Gobbi, F., Veizis, A., & Douglas, P. (2020). COVID-19: Exposing and addressing health disparities among ethnic minorities and migrants. Journal of travel medicine, 27(7), taaa113.

 

Hooper MW, Nápoles AM, Pérez-Stable EJ. COVID-19 and racial/ethnic disparities. JAMA 2020; 323: 2466–67

 

Khunti K, Singh AK, Pareek M, Hanif W. Is ethnicity linked to incidence or outcomes of covid-19? BMJ 2020; 369:m1548.

 

Orcutt, M., Patel, P., Burns, R., Hiam, L., Aldridge, R., Devakumar, D., ... & Abubakar, I. (2020). Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response. The Lancet, 395(10235), 1482-1483.

 

Platt L, Warwick R. Are some ethnic groups more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others? 2020; 1–27. https://www.ifs.org.uk/inequality/chapter/are-some-ethnic-groups-more-vulnerable-to-covid-19-

than-others/.

 

Province of British Columbia. Medical services plan response to COVID-19. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/health-drug-coverage/msp/bc-residents/msp-covid-19-response

 

Tai DBG, Shah A, Doubeni CA, Sia IG, Wieland ML. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Clin Infect Dis 2020; ciaa815. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa815.

 

THE ASPEN INSTITUTE ROUNDTABLE ON COMMUNITY CHANGE (2004). STRUCTURAL RACISM AND COMMUNITY BUILDING. Available from: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/files/content/docs/rcc/aspen_structural_racism2.pdf

 

Tuyisenge, G., & Goldenberg, S. M. (2021). COVID-19, structural racism, and migrant health in Canada. The Lancet, 397(10275), 650-652.

 

Williamson E, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran KJ et al. OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19-related hospital death in the linked electronic health records of 17 million adult NHS patients. Nature, medRxiv 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2521-4.

​

​

Migration, (Re)settlement and Wellbeing

Organizers: Jennifer Dean (University of Waterloo), Sara Edge (X University), Andrea Rishworth (University of Toronto Mississauga), Kathi Wilson (University of Toronto Mississauga)

​

Immigration is a growing global phenomenon with multidimensional wellbeing implications for migrants, and populations in sending and receiving countries (IMOUN, 2020; Segal., 2019).  Over the past two decades, the number of international migrants nearly doubled, with 272 million people living outside their country of birth in 2020 (UN, 2020). While nearly two-thirds of international migrants move by choice for improved labour prospects, a growing number of migrants are increasingly displaced due to violent conflict, economic and political instability, and weather-related hazards caused by climate change (UN, 2020). COVID-19 travel restrictions, border closures, and xenophobia have further challenged the wellbeing of immigrants, families, and communities in sending and receiving counties (Kluge, 2020; Mukumbang, 2020).

 

At the national and regional level, migration patterns in destination countries are also changing. While settlement in large urban gateway cities have traditionally been commonplace, migrants are increasingly (re)settling in mid-sized and smaller rural communities as a way to escape congestion, affordability challenges and barriers to employment in urban landscapes (Esses & Carter, 2019; Lam, 2019; Walton-Roberts, 2005). Further, the pandemic and associated shifts towards remote work and telecommuting raise questions about implications for migration and settlement patterns in addition to concerns over whether traditionally less diverse communities are equipped to support the health, well-being, social integration and service needs of incoming immigrant populations (Esses et al., 2021; Kensicki, 2019).

 

To this end, this session aims to provide a platform for scholars to explore the impact of international flows of people on the wellbeing of host communities as well as the wellbeing of migrants and their families, near or far. We are specifically focused on examining place-based initiatives, policies, strategies and/or interventions that impact the settlement, retention, and/or integration of immigrants into host communities, and how these experiences play out differently across and within countries, rural, urban and suburban spaces, and cultural contexts. This session aims to develop a better understanding of how interrelationships between place, immigrant settlement and well-being are changing as a result of the pandemic and post-recovery processes. We welcome papers that draw on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. Topics can include, but are not limited to:

 

• (Re)Settlement initiatives that impact the wellbeing of immigrants or reduce inequalities for newcomer populations

• Place-based settlement initiatives that impact wellbeing of host communities

• Socio-spatial drivers of mobility, settlement, and/or retention of migrants, including the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on well-being of immigrants in place

• Critical reflections on ‘successful settlement’ or ‘integration outcomes’ for diverse immigrant populations

• Place-based comparisons of immigrant settlement, integration, well-being at any scale and/or comparing multiple settings or scales

• Explorations of lived experiences of specific immigrant sub-populations (e.g., by age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, time since migration, country of origin) or aspects of immigrant well-being (e.g., intercultural encounters, housing affordability, food security, access to natural environments) in place

 

Please email your abstracts (maximum 250 words), contact information and session title to Andrea Rishworth at andrea.rishworth@utoronto.ca by April 13th, 2022.     

​

Works Cited

 

Esses, V. & Carter, C. (2019). Beyond the Big City. How small communities across Canada can attract and retain newcomers. Pathways to Prosperity. Public Policy Forum.

 

Esses, V., McRae, J., Alboim, N., Brown, N., Friesen, C., Hamilton, L., ... & Walton-Roberts, M. (2021). Supporting Canada’s COVID-19 resilience and recovery through robust immigration policy and programs. Facets, 6(1), 686-759.

 

IOM (International Organization for Migration) 2020. WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020. Available from: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf

 

Kensicki, A. (2019). “Smart” Colonialism and Digital Divestment: A Case Study. Journal of Palestine Studies, 48(2), 7-25.

 

Kluge, H. H. P., Jakab, Z., Bartovic, J., d'Anna, V., & Severoni, S. (2020). Refugee and migrant health in the COVID-19 response. The Lancet, 395(10232), 1237-1239.

 

Lam, M. (2019). Language education for newcomers in rural Canada: Needs, opportunities, and innovations. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 14(1).

 

Mukumbang, F. C. (2021). Pervasive systemic drivers underpin COVID-19 vulnerabilities in migrants. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1), 1-7.

 

Segal, U. A. (2019). Globalization, migration, and ethnicity. Public health, 172, 135-142.

 

United Nations. (2019). Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migration 2019: Report (ST/ESA/SER.A/438).

 

Walton-Roberts, M. Regional Immigration and Dispersal: Lessons from Small- and Medium-Sized Urban Centres in British Columbia. Can. Ethn. Stud. 2005, 37, 12–34.

​

​

Qualitative, participatory and mixed media feminist research in geography, during the COVID-19 pandemic

Organizer: Mantha Katsikana (York University)

​

Study Group Sponsor: Feminist Intersectional Solidarity Group (FIGS)

 

This session explores the ways the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created a shift in the ways feminist geographers conduct and experience their research, either removing or limiting the aspect of groundedness in fieldwork as well as in-person contact with research participants and the place-based affective and emotional experiences of research locations. The governance of the pandemic in various geographical and socio-political contexts revealed already existing issues of lack of access to health care, lack of mental health support, poor housing conditions, lack of access to technology and connectivity as well as an overall crisis unfolding both in individual lives and communities of feminist researchers and participants alike, leaving women, marginalized groups and feminized subjects even more vulnerable than before. Bringing forward issues such as structural and spatial inequality, gender-based violence and precarity on the intersections of gender, race, class, (dis)ability and citizenship status, feminist research during the pandemic required adjustment, flexibility, re-evaluation and reflection on ethics, care, safety, collaboration and privilege. The session explores the resourceful ways of conducting feminist qualitative research ethically, nurturing and maintaining new or already existing relationships in the fieldwork, but also dealing with isolation and pandemic-related anxiety, while discussing “safety” and care within fieldwork beyond the COVID-19 restrictions. This session also focuses on: feminist participatory audiovisual methods; ethics and possibilities of technologies in remote participatory feminist research, affective geographies of the pandemic research; auto-ethnography in times of COVID-19; decolonizing remote/pandemic-adjusted fieldwork.

 

If you are interested in participating or would like more information please contact Mantha Katsikana (manthakats@gmail.com).

​

​

Emerging Topics in Urban Greenspace Research

Organizers: Janina Kowalski (University of Toronto); Amber Grant (X University)

​

Urban greenspaces are a critical component of urban human-ecological interactions. For example, at the individual scale, many urban dwellers engage with greenspaces for recreation, health, and connection to cultural memory, among many other reasons. On a municipal scale, urban greenspaces have also become recognized as a technical solution for addressing the impacts of climate change by integrating trees as living green infrastructure. However, urban greenspaces are highly political and contested. For example, urban greenspace is often inequitably distributed across city neighbourhoods, disproportionately impacting racialized and low-income residents. Communities may even oppose the planting of trees and expansion of greenspaces out of fear of spurring gentrification in their neighbourhoods.

 

We are seeking papers that focus on the following themes. However, other relevant topics will also be considered:

• Community-led urban forest decision-making and planning

• Governance approaches to urban greenspace planning and management

• The role of advocacy groups/coalitions (multi-stakeholder) involvement in urban greenspace planning and management

• The role of green infrastructure in cities

• Urban trees as tools for climate change mitigation and urban heat

• Human perceptions surrounding urban greenspace and trees

• The more-than-human agency of urban trees and nature

• Environmental justice and urban greenspace

• Environmental racism and urban greenspace

• Green gentrification and urban greenspace

• Urban agriculture, urban food trees and community gardens

 

If interested in participating in this session, or you would like more information, please contact Janina Kowalski (janina.kowalski@mail.utoronto.ca).

​

​