This year the event will be offered in a hybrid model. If you are attending in person, all sessions take place in the Catalyst Centre, EV151-52, Environmental Sciences and Chemistry Building. If you will be watching the live stream, the link you will need to access the session will be sent to you the day before the event.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 (10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon ET)

What are SDGs? A Brief Introduction to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Speaker: Prof. Imre Szeman, Director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation & Sustainability and Professor of Human Geography 

Abstract: In 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly identified 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), described as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” These goals include an end to hunger and poverty, a reduction in inequalities, and the achievement of climate goals. The target for achieving the SDGs was set as 2030 – an ambitious aim given the scale of the problems these goals seek to address.  This presentation will offer a short introduction to the SDGs, beginning with an assessment of the idea of “sustainability” as it developed in the post-war period. How far has the UN come in achieving these goals? Are these the right goals to work toward which we should work to achieve social, economic, and environmentally sustainable development?

Bio:  Imre Szeman is the inaugural Director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation & Sustainability and Professor of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. A cultural theorist distinguished for his contributions to the study of the social-cultural and political challenges of effective energy transitions, he has also received distinctions for his research on globalization and culture. Szeman is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.  He is author (most recently) of On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy (2019) and completing work on the edited collection Energized: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon ET)

Communities’ observations to inform environmental health research: example of Northeast British Columbia

Speaker: Prof. Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, Assistant Professor in Environmental Health in the Department of Health & Society at U of T Scarborough

Abstract:  Anthropogenic pressures lead to rapid and significant changes in the environment, posing a threat to public health. While several studies confirm that some communities are disproportionately affected by environmental changes, few have received support and guidance from researchers in implementing research projects based on their concerns. Our lab highlights community knowledge as a valuable source of information in order to explore the relationships between environmental factors and health. Most of our lab’s research concerns the health impacts of unconventional natural gas operations in Northeast British Columbia. This region sits on an important source of natural gas with approximately 35,000 wells drilled so far, representing 25% of Canada’s natural gas production. Unconventional natural gas operations can release volatile organic compounds and trace elements naturally occurring in the rock formation. Many of these chemicals are known or suspected reproductive and development toxicants, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and respiratory irritants. During this presentation, Dr. Caron-Beaudoin will present community-based research regarding exposure to contaminants associated with unconventional natural gas operations and maternal and birth outcomes in Northeast British Columbia.

Bio: Élyse Caron-Beaudoin is an Assistant Professor in environmental health in the Department of Health & Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her research focuses on the development of transdisciplinary community-based research projects to assess the impacts of anthropogenic pressures on health by combining information across multiple levels of biological organization. The mission of her lab, "From Bench to Communities", is to investigate exposure to environmental contaminants and their associated health outcomes and mechanisms of toxicity. Dr. Caron-Beaudoin holds a PhD in biology with a specialization in toxicology from the INRS – Armand-Frappier Institute in Laval, Quebec. From 2018 to 2020, she was a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal. During her fellowship, she investigated the associations between density and proximity to oil and gas wells and birth outcomes in Northeast British Columbia. Her research interests are at the nexus of toxicology, molecular biology, public and environmental health, and community-based research.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon ET)

“My lived experience matters”: Working with people with disabilities to improve equity in pregnancy care

Speaker: Prof. Hilary K. Brown, Assistant Professor, Department of Health & Society and Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Abstract: One in five Canadians 15 years of age and older have a disability, and women are more likely to have disabilities than men. Disabled women face important social, health, and health care inequities. The 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities. However, women with disabilities report that they are under-served in sexual and reproductive health care settings. The Disability and Pregnancy Study was a National Institutes of Health-funded study that examined the pregnancy-related health outcomes and health care experiences of women with disabilities in Ontario. In this presentation, Dr. Hilary Brown will present the findings of the study and discuss how a community-informed approach was used to develop recommendations to improve access and equity in pregnancy care. 

Bio: Hilary Brown, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Health & Society and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is cross-appointed to the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and is an Adjunct Scientist at Women’s College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Dr. Brown holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Disability & Reproductive Health. Her research program examines maternal and child health across the life course, with a particular focus on populations with disabilities and chronic illness, health equity, and the social determinants of health.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023 (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon ET)

Mobilizing Justice: Towards Evidence Based Transportation Equity Policy

Speaker: Prof. Steven Farber, Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography

Abstract: This talk will review the core concepts of transportation equity before providing several examples of applied spatial analysis aimed at diagnosing current levels of inequality and forecasting equity impacts associated with transportation investments. The talk concludes with a summary of the new data and analytical methods being developed for Mobilizing Justice, an intersectoral research partnership.

Bio: Steven Farber is an Associate Professor of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is the Director of Mobilizing Justice, a national partnership conducting research in support of more equitable transportation planning, policy, and outcomes. He is also directing the Suburban Mobilities Cluster at U of T Scarborough and is an Associate Director of Mobility Network at the University of Toronto. His research investigates the social and economic outcomes of travel behavior, transportation planning, and urban form with an aim to provide empirical evidence in support of improved transport and social policy in cities.