U of T Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

Awards

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Undergraduate p. 19

PAC & UTAGA p. 04

Geogr

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Planning p. 85

External p. 143

UTAGA

PAC

Message from the Chair

Richard DiFrancesco, Chair, Geography & Planning, St. George Department The Department of Geography & Planning is very fortunate indeed to exist as part of a collegial, intellectually vibrant, socially conscious, and friendly community. This community provides myriad benefits to its members. The department provides field-leading research and teaching in all aspects of Geography and Planning, and its students and alumni carry the lessons from this work into the world, contributing to broad social and environmental benefits. After many years, this community has developed the ability to honour those members who deserve special mention, and this booklet is a testament to this ability and to those individuals. On behalf of my colleagues and friends in the St. George Department of Geography & Planning, I would like to not only congratulate all of our award winners, but also to thank our alumni groups – both PAC and UTAGA – for their efforts in making these awards possible.

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Puneh Jamshidi UTAGA Chair, 2020-22 I am pleased to congratulate this year’s UTAGA Award recipients – Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie and Professor Glen Norcliffe. As GGAPSS President (2020-21), Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie contributed significantly to graduate education and programing, working to update the criteria for programlevel fellowships, to create and promote mentorships and bursaries, and to foster a safer and more just environment, particularly by addressing antiBlack and systemic racism in the university. Professor Glen Norcliffe has made significant research contributions to the field of geography, including insights on industry, globalization, governance, regional labour markets, technology and cultural change. His leadership positions, publications, and international fellowships further attest to the significance of his work.

I am also immensely grateful to the UTAGA team for choosing me for the Outstanding Service Award and hope to continue to serve our alumni group well in the coming year. Finally, I would like to congratulate all student award winners, including the recipients of the UTAGA Outstanding Performance Awards! We look forward to celebrating with you in-person in the future.

Message from the Executives UTAGA

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Arno van Dijk PAC Chair, 2020-22 I am pleased to present the PAC Honorary Chair Award to Renee Gomes and Jeff Cantos, both having made significant contributions to PAC, but also to the learning experience of graduate planning students over numerous years with their Land Use Planning course. Additionally, it is my honour to present the Distinguished Planning Alumni Award to Angela Gibson. Angela has led a career of exceptional distinction and her outstanding achievement, leadership, and dedication to UofT Planning students make her an excellent recipient of this award. Finally, I am especially pleased to recognize Natalia Zdaniuk as the recipient of the PAC Outstanding Service Award. Natalia’s support of PAC over numerous years, but especially during the last two years of COVID, has made a tremendous positive experience not only for students, but also PAC members.

PAC would not have been able to function without Natalia’s support. I would also like to offer my sincere congratulations to all students who received awards. The MScPl program is full of talented and interesting individuals and I’m thrilled that you are being recognized for your merit and skill.

Message from the Executives PAC

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Award Descriptions PAC Distinguished Alumni Award This award is given to planning alumni who have led a career of exceptional distinction and brought honour to the department.

PAC Honorary Chair Award This award is given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the development of the Department of Geography & Planning or its programs, and its alumni.

PAC Outstanding Service Award This award is presented to individuals who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to the Department of Geography & Planning, its programs, its students or its alumni.

UTAGA Fenton Chin Outstanding Service Award

UTAGA Distinguished Alumni Award

This award is presented to individuals who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to the Department of Geography & Planning, its programs, its students or its alumni. The award is named in honour of Fenton Chin (B.A. ’94) in recognition of his 18 years of service on UTAGA. He joined UTAGA in 1995 as a member-at-large and became president in 2010. He was also a regular contributor to GeoPlan, the department’s alumni newsletter.

This award is given to geography alumni who have led a career of exceptional distinction and brought honour to the department.

UTAGA Honorary President Award This award is given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the development of the Department of Geography & Planning or its programs, and its alumni.

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AWARD RECIPIENTS

UTAGA Distinguished Alumni Award

Glen Norcliffe Glen Norcliffe’s career as a geographer began at the age of 4 when his 80-year-old kindergarten teacher presented him with an 1869 Phillips World Atlas. He spent the next 10 years searching in vain in newer atlases for Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the process becoming familiar with the World’s geography. His undergraduate studies at Cambridge coincided with the “awakening” of geography led by figures such as Peter Haggett and Richard Chorley. He continued his graduate work at the University of Toronto where Leslie Curry and Emilio Casetti were pointing the discipline in new directions. His doctorate at Bristol University, supervised by Michael Chisholm, confirmed his focus on industrial geography and regional growth. He joined the Faculty of York University in 1970 and 52 years later is still a faculty member, although his research interests have evolved to embrace social, political and cultural constructions within economic geography. Visiting fellowships in Kenya, France, Great Britain and China have led to several fruitful research projects. He is currently working on the sport economy, technology (especially for the disabled), and interpretations of extractive peripheries.

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UTAGA Honorary President Award

Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie Keisha is an urban planner and researcher, born and raised in co-operative housing in downtown Toronto. She holds an Honours B.A. in Political Science and Urban Studies with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, and is a recent graduate of the Master of Science in Planning program in the Department.

Keisha served as 2019-20 President of the Graduate Geography and Planning Student Society (GGAPSS). As president, she contributed significantly to graduate education and programming, working with the Department to increase equitable access to funding, creating and promoting mentorship opportunities, and establishing the GGAPSS COVID-19 Bursary for students.

During the pandemic, her leadership ensured the successful continuation of graduate orientation, including anti-oppression training to foster safer and just learning environments.

Her contributions also extended to challenging the Department to actively address systemic anti-Black racism at the University. This includes serving on the 2020 Planning Program Review Committee to support the reimagining of our curriculum.

Keisha has been the recipient of a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, as well as an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. In 2021, she was awarded a Canadian Institute of Planners President’s Award for demonstrating outstanding contribution to the future of the planning profession. and recently served on the Ontario Professional Planners Institute Anti-Black Racism in Planning Task Force. She remains committed to advancing reparative and human-rights based approaches to planning theory and practice.

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UTAGA Fenton Chin Outstanding Service Award

Puneh Jamshidi Puneh is a recent graduate from the School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University, and holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto, where she specialized in Environmental Geography and minored in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). As President of UTAGA, Puneh has shown excellent leadership and initiative and has fostered a sense of community. Amidst the challenges of the pandemic, she ensured numerous opportunities for alumni connection and discussion, including UTAGA meetings and a successful annual lecture. Through her passion for the fields of geography and planning, as well as her knowledge of the student experience, Puneh has promoted new perspectives and an ongoing engagement between alumni and students.

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PAC Distinguished Alumni Award

Angela Gibson Angela joined the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in 2020 as Head, Strategy and Foresight responsible for ensuring that the third largest transit agency in North America is ready for change and disruption. Angela leads a challenging effort of integrating equity and inclusion in her diverse portfolio which includes fare policy, digital connectivity, innovation, accessibility and systems planning. Angela is a Registered Professional Planner with over 18 years of urban planning experience focused on creating complete and connected communities through facilitating the synergies between land use and transit planning.

Prior to joining the TTC, Angela worked for various municipal governments including York, Durham and the Town of Ajax in the capacity of leading intergovernmental relations, transportation planning, diversity and inclusion programs and strategic plans. As a city builder Angela has led a number of major regional initiatives including transportation planning for urban growth centres and universal accessibility programs.

Angela is an alumnus of the University of Toronto Urban Planning program where she has established a scholarship (named after her father, Thomas Panton) for visible minorities in the Urban Planning field at the University of Toronto to help support continued diversity within the planning profession.

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PAC Honorary Chair Award

Renée Gomes Renée is a champion of creative, multi-sector approaches to city building, and she has led numerous strategies for advancing public policy objectives through commercially successful real estate projects. She graduated from University of Toronto’s Planning program in 2004, after which she served as a member of the Planning Alumni Committee for several years.

Renée’s experience includes both public and private sector roles, through which she has led complex master planning and municipal approvals initiatives in Toronto’s waterfront, across the Greater Toronto Area, and in England. She was most recently Chief Development Officer at First Gulf Corporation, and in January 2022 she will be joining DiamondCorp as the Senior Vice President of Development.

Together with Jeffrey Cantos, Renée designed and instructs the Land Use Planning course in the University of Toronto’s Program in Planning. She is passionate about helping students to understand Ontario’s planning framework and how it can be used to shape communities.

Renée is a Board Director of Evergreen and a member of the Management Committee for ULI Toronto. She is a Registered Professional Planner and a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

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PAC Honorary Chair Award

Jeffrey Cantos Since graduating from the Department in 2004, Jeffrey has been involved with Planning students and the program. Jeff was an active participant with the Planning Alumni Committee and Chaired PAC between 2009-2011. During his time as PAC Chair, he mobilized his former classmates in instituting the Matthew Hanson Planning Opportunities Workshop in honour of our classmate, Matt, who is dearly missed. Jeff co-taught Land Use Planning for the last ten years and always has a sense of pride when he interacts with former students in a professional setting. More recently, Jeff (with Renee Gomes) designed and executed the Professional Development Modules for Planning students intended to expose students to the various paths they can take postgraduation, along with helpful tips for their journey. Jeff is currently the Manager for the City of Toronto’s Official Plan Review, where’s he is centring his team’s work around policies that seek equitable outcomes for all Torontonians and those yet to arrive.

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PAC Outstanding Service Award

Natalia Zdaniuk Natalia Zdaniuk is a writer, former geography student, and the Events & Communications Coordinator for the Department of Geography & Planning. As a graduate student in the department, Natalia completed her M.A. thesis exploring queer struggles for ‘safer spaces’ through the lens of critical-race and decolonial scholarship. She has since utilized her experiential knowledge of U of T and the department to support its various administrative functions. As the Events & Communications Coordinator for the last three years, she has worked with the Planning Alumni Committee (PAC) and University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni (UTAGA) to organize events and outreach, including the annual UTAGA lecture series, the PAC Spring Social, and award activities. Natalia’s background in social and political geography has also played an important role in her fiction writing which she will continue to pursue at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Fall 2022.

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About the Organizations UTAGA The University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni (UTAGA) was founded in 1993 by an ad hoc group consisting of alumni who represented a wide range of graduating years and members of the University of Toronto Geography Department faculty.

Over time, this group became UTAGA’s first Executive.

UTAGA represents all of the department’s alumni. This includes individuals with an undergraduate degree from U of T with either a major or specialist in a geography program, and those with a graduate degree administered by

PAC the Department of Geography & Planning. Upon graduating, alumni are given the option to receive UTAGA updates by email. The Executive of UTAGA also welcomes new members to join our monthly meetings and participate in alumni programming and initiatives Click here to learn more about UTAGA.

Established in 1996, the Planning Alumni Committee (PAC) is a non-profit volunteer organization comprised of graduates of the Master of Science in Planning (MScPl) program working to enrich the learning experiences of current graduate planning students. PAC’s mandate is twofold: 1) to encourage networking among alumni, faculty, planning students and other planning industry professionals; and 2) to raise money for planning scholarships and the Friends of Planning Fund.

second Wednesday of every month throughout the academic year. To attend please email committee@uoftpac. ca. Our monthly meetings ensure the success of our programming and initiatives such as the Mentorship Program, student learning modules and workshops, and our and our annual Spring Social. Thanks to the generous donations made to our Friends of Planning Fund, we are able to fund scholarships, student travel for conferences, and the annual graduate planning field trip.

The Planning Alumni Committee meets virtually on the

Click here to learn more about PAC. Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Matthew Farish Associate Chair, Undergraduate Another strange and difficult year has passed, and we have once again been unable to gather to acknowledge awardwinners in Geography and Planning. In my teaching and administrative roles, I remain very aware of the effort required to achieve these successes: thank you for your contributions and commitment to our department. Congratulations, and I hope you can take a moment to celebrate this piece of happy news near or at the end of your undergraduate career. Wherever this finds you, be well on the next stage of your journey.

Message from the Associate Chair

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AWARD RECIPIENTS

Alpar Undergraduate Scholarship Established in honour of the late Zehra Alpar, the Department’s student advisor for many years spanning the 1960s through 1990s, by friends, colleagues and alumni upon her retirement in 1994, these awards are given to outstanding students who have made significant progress in completing their degrees.

Oliver Bassel Oliver is a fourth-year student studying physical geography, mathematics, and statistics at the St. George campus. He expects to graduate in the spring. Currently, Oliver is looking for employment in a variety of different fields relating to climate change, sustainability, renewable energy, and resource management. He is driven by his sense of wonder and curiosity about the world and his desire to leave a meaningful positive impact in whatever it is he ultimately pursues.

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Ben Shindman Scholarship in Geography Created in honour of the late Benjamin Shindman, one of the Department’s top students in the 1940s and ‘50s, this award is given to an outstanding full-time undergraduate student who has completed his/her third year of a Geography Specialist or Double Major Program and who is currently enrolled in the fourth year of that program.

Willow Cabral Willow Cabral is a fourth-year undergraduate Geography student, originally from a small town on Vancouver Island, BC. Since moving to Toronto in 2018 she has been involved in several environmental initiatives, from completing LEAF’s Young Urban Forest Leaders program to coordinating a neighbourhood-wide tree planting initiative in the Annex, to implementing a Park(ing) Day installation on Bloor St. West.

These experiences have sparked her research interests, which encompass the intersections of urban liveability and sustainability, with a focus on how community-engaged planning can lead to more equitable and vibrant cities.

She currently works as an intern for an urban planning and design studio, which has given her glimpses into her dream career. In Fall 2022, Willow hopes to pursue a Master’s degree in Urban Planning to work towards her goal of becoming a professional planner and to help foster environmental and equitable urban planning.

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Edward Blake Scholarship in Earth Sciences This scholarship is awarded to a student in second or third year with an A average, enrolled in a program offered by the Department of Geography.

This scholarship was created from a gift of the late Hon. Edward Blake, Chancellor of the University, 18761900. This award is presented to a geography student in alternate years.

Hana Fahim Hana is a fourth year student studying conservation biology and GIS. She is generally interested in how GIS can be applied to answering research questions in ecology and conservation biology. She is currently working on a project studying urban coral reefs in India and how proximity to cities and high population density can affect their function and resilience. Urban reefs may be more adapted to extreme conditions due to increased exposure to human pressures. They can, therefore, prove to be more resilient to future climate change and can be potential refuges against it.

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F. Kenneth Hare Scholarship in Environment Given to an outstanding undergraduate student in their third or fourth year of study in either of the Environment and Resource Management or Physical and Environmental geography programs. Preference will be given to students registered in Trinity College.

Angel Yang Angel is in her fourth year at the University of Toronto, studying environmental geography, human geography, and urban studies. She is very honoured to receive this scholarship. She is an aspiring urban planner who is interested in community-led initiatives. Angel is passionate about sustainability and urban social justice, and hopes to work closely with communities to address their needs through planning.

Angel’s research interests include the impact of community centres, green spaces, and active transportation infrastructure on neighbourhoods during COVID-19.

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Griffith Taylor Memorial Award The late Griffith Taylor founded the Department of Geography in 1935, serving as Chair from 1935 to 1951. In his honour, UTAGA established this award to recognize outstanding academic achievement. It is presented to an outstanding student graduating from a four-year program with either a major or specialist in geography, who has exhibited all-round excellence over the course of the program.

Ariella Kohn-Adams Ariella is completing her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Geography and Forest Conservation. Her research focuses on generating socio-ecological resilience to ecological degradation, with an emphasis on regenerative agricultural systems, as well as on invasive species management within deciduous forest ecosystems. She is looking forward to continuing her studies next year at the post-graduate level, where her research will focus on community ecology of the Great Lakes Region.

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John Horner Undergraduate Scholarship Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Hannah Gordon Hannah Gordon is a fourth-year environmental geography major. She is interested in human environment interactions, and anthropogenic impacts on natural systems. In particular, Hannah is interested in geospatial analysis within an environmental field and looking at long term changes to the environment in response to human influences. Post graduation she plans to attend graduate school to further study GIS or spatial analysis.

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John Horner Undergraduate Scholarship Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Hikmat Jamal Hikmat is a philosophy and human geography student with an interest in political geography and urban planning. He is interested in the intersections between politics and the environment, particularly in relation to civic governance, game theory, and degrowth. He is currently researching the broader philosophical motivations behind various city planning movements.

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John Horner Undergraduate Scholarship Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Ariella Kohn-Adams Ariella is completing her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Geography and Forest Conservation. Her research focuses on generating socio-ecological resilience to ecological degradation, with an emphasis on regenerative agricultural systems, as well as on invasive species management within deciduous forest ecosystems. She is looking forward to continuing her studies next year at the postgraduate level, where her research will focus on community ecology of the Great Lakes Region.

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John Horner Undergraduate Scholarship Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Nova Dexter Nova is in her fourth and final year studying Environmental Geography at U of T, with minors in Human Geography and Drama. Her academic work and studies have focused on understanding, managing, and conserving the relationship between humans and the natural environment, and she is passionate about environmental planning, ecosystem restoration, conservation biology, and food sovereignty. Her post-graduate plans have yet to be set, but she hopes to pursue a Master’s degree that will allow her to build a career around environmental management and protection and fostering sustainable relationships between society and the biophysical world.

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John Horner Undergraduate Scholarship Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Shulie Smolyanitsky Shulie is a fourth-year student and Human Geography specialist. Through a capstone project in partnership with the School of Cities and Wavelength Music, she is involved in supporting Toronto’s music industry through infrastructure development. She also assists with a research project on the community development sector as an intern at Social Planning Toronto, and holds a part-time administrative job on campus. Shulie’s research interests lie in the intersections of labour geographies and economic development within the creative industries.

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Sidney & Lucille Silver Scholarship This award is given to a student with an A average, in the third year of a specialist or double major program in environmental studies.

This scholarship was established by family members, in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Silver’s 50th wedding Anniversary.

Oliver Bassel Oliver is a fourth-year student studying physical geography, mathematics, and statistics at the St. George campus and expects to graduate in the spring. Currently, he is looking for employment in a variety of different fields relating to climate change, sustainability, renewable energy, and resource management. He is driven by his sense of wonder and curiosity for the world and his desire to leave a meaningful positive impact in whatever it is he ultimately pursues.

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Undergraduate Computer Applications Award This award was created by UTAGA, and is presented to a senior student who has exhibited excellent scholarship incorporating computer applications.

Eryn Maloney Eryn is a Human Geography major with a minor in GIS and an interest in the role of spatial analysis and mapping as an urban planning tool.

Eryn hopes to use his 15-year career in music to support a future in arts and culture planning and is currently researching the implications of precarity and inequality for live audio technicians in Toronto’s music industry. Alongside a passion for the arts, Eryn maintains an interest in active transportation and social justice issues.

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Undergraduate Geography Toronto Award The University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni provides this award to graduating students who have made outstanding contributions to the life of the department. Award winners are individuals who have been extensively involved in extracurricular activities targeted at fellow geography/planning students, while at the same time achieving academic success.

Catalina Barinas Catalina is completing a double degree in Human Geography (focus in Planning & Urban Geography) and Philosophy, with a minor in geographic information systems (GIS).

She is passionate about sustainable urban development and empowering diversity in communities. Likewise, her research interests lie between heritage preservation and community resilience and how they contribute to social, ecological, and economic prosperity. Catalina plans to pursue a MSc in Planning to further explore economic development planning.

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Undergraduate Geography Toronto Award The University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni provides this award to graduating students who have made outstanding contributions to the life of the department. Award winners are individuals who have been extensively involved in extracurricular activities targeted at fellow geography/planning students, while at the same time achieving academic success.

Jasmine Kara Jasmine Kara graduated in 2021 with a Specialist in Human Geography and a Focus in Urban Geography and Planning. Jasmine was involved in the Toronto Undergratudate Geography Society (TUGS) for three years serving as Social Coordinator, Vice President and Co-President from 2018-2021. As a student advocate, Jasmine helped undergraduate students connect to academic support and services. Through seminars and social events, she also brought faculty, staff and students together. She continues her commitment to building a stronger community as the Alumni Communications and Events Assistant in the Department of Geography & Planning.

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UTAGA Outstanding Performance Award: Human Geography Created by UTAGA in 2001, the purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievements by an undergraduate geography student in the human geography Course GGR240 Geographies of Colonialism in North America.

Sonia Kazimi Sonia is a third-year human geography and criminology double major with a minor in diaspora and transnational studies. Sonia takes an academic interest in integrating her majors to explore how space and policy racialize diasporic groups and Indigenous peoples. Sonia’s work experience with the municipal government has allowed her to explore how governances shape the lived experiences of settlers, Indigenous peoples, and migrants across various scales.

She continues to use a settler-colonial lens to challenge so-called Canada’s colonial state and nationhood across her academic, personal, and work experiences.

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UTAGA Outstanding Performance Award: Methods/GIS Created by UTAGA in 2001, the purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievements by an undergraduate geography student in Methods/GIS in any of the following courses: GGR 201 (Geomorphology)/203 (Introduction to Climatology)/205 (Introduction to Soil Science)/206 (Introduction to Hydrology).

Nicole Freij Nicole’s research focuses on the application of geochemistry to mineral exploration. She looks at the chemical signatures of certain minerals associated with ore deposits, such as chlorite or pyrite, and how their element chemistry behaves.

The presence of certain trace elements can give insight to the paragenesis of mineralization and can help determine where a mineral sample is located within an ore body.

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UTAGA Outstanding Performance Award: Environmental Geography Created by UTAGA in 2001, the purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievements by an undergraduate geography student in Environmental Geography .

Mingxin (Shayla) Wang Mingxin Wang is a third-year student at the University of Toronto completing a double major in Human Geography and Criminology & Sociolegal Studies with a minor in Sociology. Mingxin’s recent work in geography draws on literature in environmental governance and political ecology to examine society-environment relations. Specifically, she used theoretical frameworks of political economy and socionatures to examine how oysters mattered in New York City’s history and the ways in which they shape the contemporary city.

Mingxin’s research interests also include urbanization, spatial polarization and injustices, neighbourhoods and health, and homelessness.

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UTAGA Outstanding Performance Award: Physical Geography Created by UTAGA in 2001, the purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding achievements by an undergraduate geography student in Physical Geography in any of the following courses: GGR 201 /203, 205, 206 .

Alex Jain Alex is an undergraduate student in Physical Geography and Earth Sciences. Some of his favourite physical geography courses have been in hydrology and fluvial geomorphology. In the future he hopes to work in water resource management or stream restoration. A couple of his hobbies include hiking across the many wonderful parks in Southern Ontario, baking (especially cinnamon rolls) and reading modernist poetry.

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UTAGA Outstanding Research Award UTAGA applauds students who undertake independent research at the undergraduate level. This award is presented to the most outstanding research project undertaken in GGR 491, undergraduate thesis course, or GGR498/488, Independent Research Project.

Ben Mumford Ben is a recent graduate from human geography and GIS. His main research interest looks at the effects of global climate change on urban development patterns and urban planning. Specifically he is interested in how modelling and GIS can be used to inform policy and design to create more sustainable cities.

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William G. Dean Scholarship in Field Research Awarded to one or more students enrolled in a specialist or major program in the Department of Geography & Planning for field research. Scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit and financial need.

Cathy Yang Cathy (Mengxi) Yang is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto and has started her first year at Columbia University in their Master of Public Health program. Her research interests include spatial epidemiology, urban and neighbourhood health, and chronic diseases. In her graduate studies, she hopes to apply the foundational GIS and programming skills gained from coursework in the Department of Geography & Planning to evaluate health inequities related to housing and food inaccessibility.

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Canadian Association of Geographers Award This award is given to the most outstanding undergraduate student graduating from an honours program in geography from the University of Toronto.

Award Winner

Erica Liu

UTAGA Outstanding Research Award UTAGA applauds students who undertake independent research at the undergraduate level. This award is presented to the most outstanding research project undertaken in GGR 491, undergraduate thesis course, or GGR498/488, Independent Research Project.

Award Winner

Kyra Bingham

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Message from the Graduate Chairs

Ron Buliung Graduate Chair, Geography & Planning Sarah Wakefield Associate Graduate Chair, Geography On behalf of the entire tri-campus graduate Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, we are thrilled to honour and acknowledge many of our brilliant graduate students for their work and scholarship during the past year. Take a moment to celebrate yourselves as we in turn celebrate you. Wishing you all the best.

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Award Descriptions Donald F. Putnam Graduate Scholarship

John D. Barnes Geodetic Sciences Fellowship

Graduate Geography Award for Black Students

James T. Lemon Memorial Scholarship

Established in honour of the late Professor Donald Fulton Putnam, the Department’s Chair from 1951 to 1963, this scholarship is awarded annually to graduate students concentrating on physical and environmental geography.

This award is given to a graduate student enrolled in a program in geography.

Preference will be given to students who are doing graduate work in the field of GIS/Geomatics.

To be awarded to students who identify as Black. Priority will be given to students who do not hold major scholarships, and who have not previously received departmental awards.

To be awarded to a graduate student in urban and historical geography, with special consideration given to students whose research speaks to issues of social justice, based on academic merit and financial need.

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Award Descriptions JBR Whitney Award

Graduate Alpar Scholarship

In establishing this award, the University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni (UTAGA) recognizes Joe Whitney’s contribution as a founding member of UTAGA and his dedicated service to the Association.

The award is given on the basis of academic excellence to a graduate student studying the environment or international development.

This scholarship was established in honour of the late Zehra Alpar, the Department’s student advisor from the 1960s through 1990s. Created by friends, colleagues and alumni upon her retirement in 1994, this award is given to outstanding students who have made significant progress in completing their degrees.

Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning

Graduate Geography Award for International Students

Established in partnership with the Black Research Network, this award supports Black graduate student scholars working broadly in the areas of gegoraphy, planning and social justice.

To be awarded to International students. Priority will be given to students who do not hold major scholarships, and who have not previously received departmental awards.

George Tatham Alumni Graduate Scholarship

John Horner Scholarship in Geography

This scholarship is for graduate students in the Department of Geography and Planning, on the basis of academic merit.

Awarded to a graduate student in the Department of Geography & Planning based on academic merit.

Award Descriptions RBC Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy

Oscar J. Marshall Graduate Fellowship

The Griffith Taylor Scholarship in Geography

To be awarded to graduate students undertaking a course of study in the general area of public/economic policy. The award is given on the basis of academic merit and financial need.

This award is given to a graduate student enrolled in a program in geography. Preference is given to students who are doing graduate work in the field of Geographic Information Science/Land Information Systems/Geomatics/Remote Sensing.

The Griffith Taylor Scholarship was launched at the Department of Geography’s 70th Anniversary luncheon.

This award is presented to an outstanding graduate student in the Geography or Planning Program.

Joseph A. May Scholarship Created in honour of the late Professor Joe May, this award is given to an outstanding graduate student who has approached the study of one or more of the following fields from a qualitative rather than quantitative perspective: history and philosophy of geographic thought; historical geography; social and cultural geography; geography of Canada.

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AWARD RECIPIENTS

Mobólúwajídìde D. Joseph Mobólúwajídìde (Bo) D. Joseph is a first-year M.A geography candidate whose work is attentive to the practice and effects of surveillance on Black Canadian communities in Toronto. His work draws on scholarship around spatial phenomenology and visual representations of Blackness in Canada, as well as the subfields of legal geography, urban geography, and infrastructure studies. His thesis is concerned specifically with the terrain of Toronto’s public parks and the surveillance, regulation, and policing of Black people’s interactions with them.

Bo is also a Junior Fellow at Massey College.

Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning

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Nokuzola Songo Nokuzola's proposed doctoral research aims to explore the missing link between Transitional Justice (TJ) policy and community implementation during post-conflict reconstruction in the context of internal displacement. The goal is to elaborate on whether, and to what extent, the internal displacement burden can be mitigated via existing or novel TJ mechanisms or not, by highlighting the geopolitics and patterns of reintegration through the lens of Postcolonial Intersectionality, Feminist and Political Geography frameworks.

Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning

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Casey Loudoun Casey's research focuses on how climate change is affecting nutrient loading into the Bay of Quinte, an embayment north of Lake Ontario. This Bay has historically struggled with eutrophication issues and this work will highlight the importance of proactive non-point source management practices to reduce the impact that climate change will have on nutrient loading.

Donald F. Putnam Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Victoria Nimmo Victoria is a third year PhD candidate in Physical Geography, where her work focuses on plant soil interactions within organically managed environments. Specifically, her current research seeks to examine the extent to which crop domestication has impacted a plant's ability to acquire soil resources, analyzed through changes to root functional traits and microbial relationships.

She has utilized both large scale field studies at the UTSC Campus Farm and smaller scale greenhouse studies at the St George campus in this pursuit to aid in determining which plant traits may be most beneficial within organic farming systems.

Donald F. Putnam Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Brianna Lane Brianna’s research interests include lake ice climate interactions, cryosphere research, and climate change. Her Master’s research will focus on changing snow and lake ice using in situ monitoring with digital camera imagery in the Central Canadian High Arctic.

Brianna aims to develop a feasible method for snow and ice data quantification using ground-based cameras. Her study will examine recent variability in snow and ice phenology and compare this variability to longer historical changes in the study region.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Jandell-Jamela Nicholas Jandell-Jamela Nicholas’ research engages the experiences of Indigenous and Black women survivors of domestic abuse within the spaces of emergency shelters in Toronto. Her work investigates how Indigenous and Black women who survive inter-partner violence and who temporarily reside in emergency shelters in Toronto can help to inform the planning and design of shelters as spaces for healing, self-determination and empowerment.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Roxana Escobar Ñañez Roxana Escobar Ñañez is an Afro-Peruvian Ph.D. candidate in Human Geography. She also holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a M.A. in Political Science by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and M.Ed in Social Justice Education from OISE-UofT. Roxana’s research focuses on the places AfroPeruvian women hold in Lima’s sonic landscapes.

With her project, Roxana seeks to contribute to the geographic knowledge production about Black womanhood in Latin America.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

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Olivia Bernard Olivia's research investigates the experiences of Black girls in the Toronto education system. Her project’s main aim is to explore the processes of marginalization that include racial stereotypes, streaming, de-streaming, disciplinary actions, class, anti-Black curriculum, and resistance culture. Existing literature demonstrates that the education system in Canada assisted in creating and maintaining policies and procedures that discriminate against Black students while reinforcing negative stereotypes against the group.

The topic is important because there is an urgent need to understand the changing ways in which Black girls face discrimination in Toronto and its impact on their educational trajectories.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Omobolanle Oshinusi Bola’s research interests look at the political and socioeconomic feasibilities of using land use planning initiatives for implementing urban agriculture programs that utilize organic waste segregation in cities of the Global South. By engaging with policymakers, urban farmers and local homeowners in Lagos, Nigeria, the project will assess how urban food security and climate resilience of the communities are affected, particularly in regards to rapid urbanization, urban population growth and solid waste generation. Should such initiatives be deemed to be feasible according to the community participants, recommendations will be provided for further improvement and development in line with the state’s sustainability objectives.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Bochu Liu As a quantitative health geographer, Bochu Liu develops novel computational approaches to addressing the complex ways individuals interact with the urban environment and the impacts on population health and society. To disentangle the complexity of individuals’ dietary behaviors from the time-geographic perspective, his recent work investigated how activity sequencing affects individuals' engagement in a series of dietary activities such as food purchasing and cooking and examined how intra-household coordination confounds the relationships between time use and food behaviors. His work provides novel approaches and empirical evidence for designing the built environment and behavioral interventions that promote healthy eating in cities.

Geography & Planning Award for International Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Hanlin Zhou Hanlin Zhou likes to link GIS, RS, and CS techniques and data to human activities, such as health behavior, crime problems, and economic issues. Outside of academia, he enjoys video directing and editing.

Geography & Planning Award for International Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Shiba Desor Shiba is in the second year of her MA in Human Geography. In her MA thesis, she explores the ways in which notions of activism can be extended through a relational ontological perspective. She uses an autoethnographic approach to consider the role of affective encounters in shaping activist subjectivities.

Before joining this program, Shiba has worked with several NGOs and grassroots organizations on a range of issues including forest governance, local livelihoods and food diversity. Her research interests lie at the intersection of environment, emotions, and stories.

Geography & Planning Award for International Students

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Beibei Zhang Beibei’s research seeks to understand housing under a capitalist economic system, in particular by applying a conceptual apparatus and analytical approach from Marxian political economy.

Her PhD dissertation explores how the rise of financial capitalism has changed the modes of housing consumption, with a special focus on the changing meaning of housing tenure and the roles of multi-scalar states in this process. This dissertation includes three studies respectively on the financialization of affordable housing in Toronto from a multi-scalar governance perspective, the changing meaning of housing tenure under financialization, and theoretical understandings of the financialization of housing process and the roles of multi-scalar states in this process.

The George Tatham / Geography Alumni Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Kerstyn Lutz Kerstyn's research focuses on children's exposure to air pollution and how it affects cognitive functioning.

Increasing evidence links air pollution exposure to impaired cognitive functioning. Although this evidence is mounting, air pollution varies across space and time, and most of the research done within a Canadian context has focused on adult physical health issues. Children are more susceptible than adults to the threats of air pollution. Almost 5 million Canadian children attend and commute to school, where they may be disproportionately exposed to air pollution. Kerstyn examines children's exposure to air pollution during school travel and how it affects cognitive performance.

Graduate Alpar Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Diala Lteif Diala Lteif is currently a doctoral candidate in the Geography and Planning department at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the role of migration in the production of space, looking specifically at an urban historical study of the Karantina neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon (1918-2018). Prior to her research in the urban field, Diala was an information and process designer with extensive experience in data visualization, community work, and field research. She is currently a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation doctoral scholar and holds a Trillium award. She also has an MFA in transdisciplinary Design from Parsons the New School for Design which she pursued as a Fulbright scholar. Up until 2016, she served as full-time faculty and assistant director to the design department at ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts), where she taught the global design studio to first year masters students and supervised MA thesis projects.

Graduate Alpar Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Skye Roshan Collishaw Skye's research interests concern housing accessibility, financialization of housing and socio-spatial polarization in Canadian cities.

Skye previously worked as a land-use planner and policy advisor for the Province of Ontario, experiences that motivated her to investigate how precariously housed individuals can be better accounted for in urban planning policy.

Skye's current research investigates the connection between park use and housing conditions for low-income renters in Toronto's St. James Town neighbourhood during the COVID-19 pandemic.

James T. Lemon Memorial Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Kara Anderson Kara's research focuses on the gendered effects of agro-industrialization in the Guatemalan Highlands, with particular attention to Maya women's care work.

Her thesis calls into question the way Development continues to couch care work as disempowering by demonstrating how Maya women, in shifting aspects of their care work towards food sovereignty, are interrupting agro industrial processes that violate and contaminate their communities. Kara draws on the Indigenous, feminist embodied ontology of cuerpo-territorio (body-land), which recognizes that violence against land is violence against women's bodies, as well as the concept of care to explore how women are using their care work to heal these two territories and renegotiate future relationships.

JBR Whitney Award

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Alex Tabascio Alex is a 2nd-year MA student with an inerest in transportation equity, transit planning and spatial analysis. His thesis evaluates a proposed transit equity policy unveiled in the TTC's 5-year service plan & 10-year outlook to serve as a primary blueprint for service needs.

Concerning transit equity, the TTC proposes using an improved transit onboarding weight of 1.25 per person within Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) to augment service performance targets with the eventual goal of providing better service. Although this proposed measure can improve route prioritization, additional data-driven research is needed to compare different augmenting ridership options. Alex employs a data-fusion approach using the Canadian Census and Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) to conduct a demographic analysis of Equity-Seeking Transit Riders (ESTRs) for work and non-work transit trips at the bus-stop level.

John D. Barnes Geodetic Sciences Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Gyoorie Kim Gyoorie is a MSc student in Geography at the University of Toronto. Her research interests lie at the intersection of health geography, environmental health, sustainable development and spatial analysis.

Her current research aims to utilize social media data to improve our understanding of the urban food environment in Toronto and to analyze the change in consumption patterns amidst the pandemic. She is particularly interested in understanding the perceived view of space at an individual level.

John Horner Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Jaimie Cryder Jaimie’s research explores the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in urban sustainability transitions with a focus on processes of innovation, entrepreneurship, urban governance and urban food system dynamics. Jaimie also completed the Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies.

Through her work, Jaimie is interested in supporting the transition to more sustainable food systems.

Jaimie is currently leading the Organic Council of Ontario’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund Campaign. Jaimie’s work aims to support the uptake of climate-friendly practices on Ontario’s farms.

John Horner Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Julie Han Julie is a second-year master's student in Human Geography with a collaborative specialization in Development, Policy, and Power through the Department of Global Development Studies. Her research interests concern labour, technology, and finance, specifically how information and communications technologies are impacting property and work relationships in the Global South. Her dissertation project investigates the impacts of Uber's embedded finance experiments on labour outcomes in India, as well as emerging development discourses in the nascent FinTech sector. She was also a research assistant for the Mobilizing Justice Project and the editorial assistant for COVID-19 and Similar Futures: Pandemic Geographies (Springer 2021).

John Horner Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Lidiya Beida Lidiya's interests include Latin American political ecology, artisans and multispecies interactions. Her research focuses on handicraft producers in the Amazonian region of Ucayali, Peru; specifically, how rural Amazonian artisan livelihoods are shaped by gender, traditional and/or local ecological knowledge and forest species abundance. Lidiya's project seeks to better understand the dynamics between cultural continuity and changing tropical biodiversity.

John Horner Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Lily Ziyue Zhang Lily Ziyue Zhang is a Ph.D. Student interested in the subfields of health and urban geography.

Her Supervisor is Dr. Vincent Kuuire from the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga. She is also completing a Collaborative Specialization in Global Health (U of T Global Scholar) through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

John Horner Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Lakshmi Soundarapandian Lakshmi is a first year MScPl student exploring equity driven real estate development and urban design. Through opportunities to live and study in cities across the world, Lakshmi became passionate about investigating how cities can learn from each other and function more sustainably. Now, Lakshmi has centered her learning in understanding land use, spatial analysis, and urban design in relation to diasporas, cultural placemaking, and community engagement. She hopes to work in urban and real estate development to create built environments that reflect local and global values. Lakshmi is currently a Research Assistant for Dr. Lindsay Stephens, investigating solutions for challenges in accessibility and accommodations faced by students in healthcare fields.

She additionally serves as a Planning Alumni Committee Representative in GGAPSS. Lakshmi is also an Indian Classical dancer and the Co-Founder and President of a Vancouver-based non-profit for dance, Asta Alliance.

Joseph A. May Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

73

Lauren Foote Lauren Foote (she/her) is a first-year graduate student in the MScPl program, in the environmental concentration.

She currently serves both as the 2021-22 VP Internal for GGAPSS and as a board member on the Toronto Transportation Commission's Advisory Committee for Transportation. Lauren combines her love of environmental conservation and her passion for disability justice and transportation in both her professional and academic life.

Currently, she interns as an Operations and Service Planner for Metrolinx, is a Teaching Assistant for an undergraduate environmental course called Biogeography, is an Invigilator for Persons with Disabilities at UofT’s Accessibility Services Centre, and she researches strategies to incorporate environmental justice requirements into planning and policy for children with disabilities at Holland Bloorview Research Institute. Lauren is particularly interested in planning strategies related to natural hazard mitigation and community equity. In her time off, Lauren enjoys hiking, painting, and adding to her rock collection.

Joseph A. May Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Thomas Elias Siddall Thomas Elias Siddall (they/them) is researching how contemporary art spaces in 'post-Cold War' China and Taiwan coordinate and distribute affects, inaugurating the contemporaneity of certain social worlds while generating a queer refuse whose cross-strait organizing unsettles teleological assumptions of the Cold War's end.

They are generally interested in the intimate scales of infrastructure projects, logistics and circulation as they assemble, bend, break and mend daily life’s phasing in/with/out of the global structure of war and variegated tempos of slow death.

Joseph A. May Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Michael Lawler Mike's research interests are varied and include street food vending, urban space, informality, diaspora communities and their related foodways, institutional food provisioning, matters of food sovereignty and community engagement, as well as the transmission of culinary knowledge between generations and across space. Outside of school, he has managed multiple farmers’ markets throughout Toronto, led international experiential education programs based on food and agriculture, cooked professionally, led historical food tours, and been involved with a range of NGOs and community organizations.

Joseph A. May OSOTF Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

76

Daniel Nelson Daniel is a MSc physical geography student with a background in remote sensing and GIS techniques combined with a deep knowledge of natural sciences, in particular soil sciences, biogeochemical cycles, and cold region hydrology. He previously completed his undergraduate thesis in remote sensing and focused on using machine learning to classify wetlands in the Central Yukon. Daniel’s current research focuses on using machine learning to quantify the drivers of forest fire severity, and post-fire recovery in the forested ecozones of Canada. This research aims to provide Canadians with a greater understanding of the complex factors that have contributed to recent forest fires.

Oscar J. Marshall Graduate Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

77

Jiye Leng Jiye is a second-year Ph.D. student in physical geography. Their research focuses on the carbon cycle and climate change, using flux measurements, terrestrial ecosystem models, and remote sensing techniques. Specifically, Jiye is committed to investigating how forest ecosystems respond to global warming and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration, from the perspective of carbon and water cycles. He hopes that with the development of earth observation systems, sensors onboard satellites can provide pathways for scientists to better understand this blue planet.

Oscar J. Marshall Graduate Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Priya Patel Priya Patel is a graduate student in the Department of Geography. Her research interests are focused on the use of satellite remote sensing data in the modelling of urban air pollution and microclimates. She is currently working with the City of Toronto and the City of Hamilton to model high resolution air pollution across each city to better understand how air quality has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oscar J. Marshall Graduate Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

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Alycia Doering Alycia Doering is completing her Master of Science in Planning with a focus on social policy and urban design.

Her place-based work emphasizes the connections between culture, community, race, and affordable space from an intersectional social justice lens. She is driven to investigate social policy and communitybased mechanisms that can support places which embrace a sense of place, identity, and belonging. More specifically, Alycia’s final research project, titled Future Diasporas, aims to celebrate and amplify the stories of racialized diasporic artists as they reconcile with their past, negotiate the present amid unaffordable urban landscapes, and make space for just and flourishing futures. She is grateful to be supported by exceptional team members in developing projects on public washrooms, winter placemaking, and reimagining music venues– all projects that take a future forward direction.

Royal Bank Graduate Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

80

Anton Yu Anton Yu is a first-year MSc Geography student. He completed his undergraduate degree majoring in Geomatics with a minor in Computer Science and has previously worked as a GIS analyst in both the public and private sectors. Motivated by his experiences as an undergraduate, Anton decided to pursue research focusing on using GIS to analyze urban form and urban transportation. As urban populations continue to grow, the way cities are laid out and how people travel through a city becomes more important. Anton’s goal is to eventually use his research to improve city and transportation planning.

Royal Bank Graduate Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

81

Emily Power Emily Power is a student in the Master of Science in Planning program. Her master’s thesis looks at tenant dispossession and landlord accumulation under COVID-19 in Toronto, by tracking the expansion of financialized landlord holdings and analyzing rates of rent arrears and evictions. Emily is a graduate student fellow with the U of T Mobility Lab, doing research on transit-induced gentrification and displacement resulting from Hamilton’s light rail transit project. She is also a research assistant with the Affordable Housing Challenge Project, led by Dr. Susannah Bunce and Dr. Alan Walks. Under the supervision of Dr. Walks, she is doing research on Canadian public sector pension fund investments in rental housing. Emily is active in tenant organizing in Hamilton where she lives.

Royal Bank Graduate Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

82

Charlotte Corelli Charlotte is a second year MA Geography student.

Her research focuses on whether or not current Federal Government planning policies interfere with, or support, Indigenous planning, specifically within the contexts of climate adaptation. Her main research interests include anti-colonial planning, climate change adaptation planning, climate education, and access to education in urban centers. She is a recipient of a CGS-M award, and previously completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography and History, and Bachelor of Education degree with a focus on Aboriginal Teacher Education, at Queen's University.

The Griffith Taylor Scholarship in Geography

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Pla ning

Message from the Associate Chair

Katharine Rankin, Associate Chair, Director of Planning The annual awards ceremony affirms the contributions, the hard work and the expansive research of the community rooted in our Planning Program. I regret that we cannot convene this year in person to celebrate our donors, our alumni and our students. I am grateful that we can celebrate and recognize the extraordinary efforts of all of you through this booklet. Congratulations most of all to the student and alumni awardees, and thank you to everyone for your ongoing participation in and support for the Program in Planning at U of T.

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Award Descriptions Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Ann Borooah Graduate Planning Scholarship

Benjamin Sonshine Urban Planning Scholarship

Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning

Matthew Hanson was a graduate of the Masters of Science in Planning (MScPl) class of 2004, a wonderful friend and colleague who touched the lives of so many people before his passing.

To honour him, friends and family created this scholarship to recognize students in the MScPl program for their efforts and contribution to student life.

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and the endowment established by a donation by Mr. Edward Sorbara and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying planning and has obtained first-class standing.

Established in 1997 by the Sonshine family, in honour of their late father Benjamin, this award is presented to an outstanding student who has completed an undergraduate program in geography at the University of Toronto upon entering the MScPl Program at the University of Toronto.

Established in partnership with the Black Research Network, this award supports Black graduate student scholars working broadly in the areas of gegoraphy, planning and social justice.

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Award Descriptions Graduate Planning Award for International Students To be awarded to International students. Priority will be given to students who do not hold major scholarships, and who have not previously received departmental awards.

Graduate Planning Award for Black Students

Alan Tonks Planning Scholarship

Thomas Luther Panton Scholarship

To be awarded to students who identify as Black. Priority will be given to students who do not hold major scholarships, and who have not previously received departmental awards.

Provided by an endowment created from the proceeds of a gala dinner held in honour of Alan Tonks upon his retirement as Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto in 1997, this award is granted to outstanding students in the second year of the MScPl program who are concentrating their studies in the areas of urban planning, urban transportation or urban infrastructure.

Awarded to a student in the MScPl program on the basis of financial need and academic merit.

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Award Descriptions Friends of Planning Graduate Scholarship for Innovation This award was created through the hard work and dedication of the Friends of Planning Alumni Committee. It is awarded annually, beginning 2010, to a student entering the second year of MScPl program who demonstrates, through their studies, volunteering and/or work experiences, innovative thinking and practice to plan for or promote planning among diverse communities.

Ian D. Macpherson Award Established in honour of the late Ian D. Macpherson by his professional planning colleagues, this award is given annually to an outstanding student, registered in either year of the MScPl program, whose work has demonstrated both high academic merit and practical problem-solving ability with respect to some aspect of planning.

Edie Yolles Award in Urban Planning This award was created in honour of the late Edie Yolles, a Planning student at the University of Toronto in the 1960s.

After graduating Yolles worked as an urban planner with the Metropolitan Toronto Planning board. Later she became dedicated to film, and produced and co-directed the feature film ‘That’s My Baby’. She won a number awards for her film work. In her honour, this award is granted annually to a student of merit graduating from the MScPl program, who demonstrates a comprehensive approach to planning and has acquired the necessary skills.

Peter R. Walker Planning Scholarship Created through the efforts of the Planning Alumni Committee of the University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni and named for its key benefactor, this award is granted to students entering the second year of the MScPl program. The recipients are individuals who have made significant contributions to planning practice through applied work and thus exemplify the “best all-round planner.”

Award Descriptions LEA Consulting Ltd. Award in Planning and Transportation This award is given to a graduate student in the MScPl program with an interest in transportation, on the basis of academic merit.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship This fellowship recognizes academic achievements and contributions to the practice of planning through applied work of students in the MScPl program.

The U of T Planning Alumni Graduate Scholarship This award is given to a graduate student enrolled in full-time studies in the Department of Geography & Planning, on the basis of academic merit.

Mitchell Goldhar Award for Excellent Achievement in the Planning Program This award is given, on the basis of academic merit, to an outstanding graduate student either entering or continuing in the MScPl program.

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AWARD RECIPIENTS

Alexandra Simpson Alexandra is currently completing her MScPl where she is fascinated by the processes through which cities continuously grow and evolve. Her interests are vast but focus on real estate development, alternative housing models, and innovative approaches to land use planning. These have influenced her planning thesis on non-profit housing development which explores the processes through which non-market housing is financed, developed, and managed; and how to build capacity within the sector through an ecosystems approach. Through this work, Alexandra hopes to identify strategies that can strengthen the non-profit housing sector in Toronto and see more units of deeply affordable housing on the ground.

Alan Tonks Planning Scholarship

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Katelyn Ling Katelyn is a second-year MScPl student in the Depart of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. She has a degree in Global Resource Systems and diploma in Applied Planning. Her current research interests include equitable and multi-sectoral collaborative planning approaches and decolonized urban food systems. Katelyn’s planning thesis, supervised by Mike Ekers, aims to unpack equitable processes in planning for food and medicine spaces in the city of Vancouver.

Alan Tonks Planning Scholarship

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S. Fahima Begum Fahima is a second year MSc in Planning student from Hamilton, Ontario. She has a BA in Political Science, a Bachelor in Social Work, and three years’ work experience in individual counselling in domestic violence and developmental services.

Fahima’s research interests focus on access to the built environment. This includes access to green spaces for low-income neighbourhoods in her environmental planning courses, access to services for independent refugee youth in her research assistant position, and access to the city for undocumented residents in her CIP. Fahima hopes to use her past experiences and current knowledge to ensure increased opportunities and equitable distribution of resources for all members of the community.

Alan Tonks Planning Scholarship

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Syeda Bushra Binte Amin Syeda Bushra Binte Amin is a second-year MScPl student in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. She is interested in community planning and city management. She is also interested in how planning tools alleviate or create barriers for communities. Currently, she is focusing her research on exploring community governance options for non-profit organizations in managing a capital asset. Before joining the program, Syeda worked as an urban planner in the capital development authority in Bangladesh.

Alan Tonks Planning Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

95

Lakshmi Soundarapandian Lakshmi is a first year MScPl student exploring equity driven real estate development and urban design. Through opportunities to live and study in cities across the world, Lakshmi became passionate about investigating how cities can learn from each other and function more sustainably. Now, Lakshmi has centered her learning in understanding land use, spatial analysis, and urban design in relation to diasporas, cultural placemaking, and community engagement. She hopes to work in urban and real estate development to create built environments that reflect local and global values. Lakshmi is currently a Research Assistant for Dr. Lindsay Stephens, investigating solutions for challenges in accessibility and accommodations faced by students in healthcare fields.

She additionally serves as a Planning Alumni Committee Representative in GGAPSS. Lakshmi is also an Indian Classical dancer and the Co-Founder and President of a Vancouver-based non-profit for dance, Asta Alliance.

Ann Borooah Graduate Planning Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

96

Travis Van Wyck Travis is a MScPl student interested in the intersections between planning, economic development, and cultural production in urban nighttime economies. His research looks at the relationship between contemporary nighttime governance practices and the social, economic, and political characteristics of subcultural scenes and spaces. More specifically, Travis is examining the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) placemaking practices in Toronto’s resurgent underground rave scene to consider potential avenues for establishing equitable artistic, cultural, and nighttime policies without instrumentalizing, displacing, or marginalizing alternative cultures, scenes, and spaces.

Benjamin Sonshine Urban Planning Scholarhsip

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

97

Priscilla Ankomah-Hackman Priscilla’s research explores the experiences of Black planning students and professional planners in Canada with major emphasis of anti-Black racism and mental health services. She is passionate about creating conducive and liveable spaces for racialized groups to thrive while contributing to the socio-economic development of urban spaces. She worked with the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and Effutu Municipal Assembly Physical Planning Department as a Researcher/Urban Planner. In Canada, she worked with Hearts and Stroke Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. She volunteers as the Programs Manager for a non-profit environmental think tank in Ghana, Institute of Nature and Environmental Conservation, INEC.

Black Graduate Scholar Award in Geography & Planning

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Chiyi Tam Chiyi (MScPl, Class of 2021) is an urban planner and community organizer raised in Vancouver, on unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm and Səl̓ílwətaʔ lands and waters; in the translation between places and culture.

She is currently the manager of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust. She also codevelopment a new Chinatown Neighbourhood Land Trust with Friends of Chinatown Toronto. Her research and work explore alternative enterprise and governance models which use community ownership as an anti-displacement strategy for racial & economic justice in Toronto’s Chinatowns.

Edie Yolles Award in Urban Planning

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Demetra Barbacuta Demetra is completing her second year in the MScPl program. Influenced by her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences, she entered the program with an interest in integrating public health into planning practices. While this interest has persisted and underlies everything she does, her interests have also expanded to include the role of streets, streets as public space, and sustainable modes of transportation. Her planning thesis will be dedicated to analyzing the equitable distribution of slow streets in Toronto and Los Angeles. She also works as a research assistant, exploring pandemic responses implemented in North American cities.

Friends of Planning Graduate Scholarship for Innovation

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100

Priscilla Ankomah-Hackman Priscilla’s research explores the experiences of Black planning students and professional planners in Canada with major emphasis of anti-Black racism and mental health services. She is passionate about creating conducive and liveable spaces for racialized groups to thrive while contributing to the socio-economic development of urban spaces. She worked with the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and Effutu Municipal Assembly Physical Planning Department as a Researcher/Urban Planner. In Canada, she worked with Hearts and Stroke Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. She volunteers as the Programs Manager for a non-profit environmental think tank in Ghana, Institute of Nature and Environmental Conservation, INEC.

Friends of Planning Graduate Scholarship for Innovation

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Nida Mirza Nida Mirza is a second-year Master of Science in Planning (MScPl) student. She completed her undergrad at UofT in political science, history and the study of religion. After working in the public sector at the federal level, she became interested in local-level politics drawing her to planning. Her research interests include the intersections of faith and planning, Indigenous/settler relations, equitable housing and climate resiliency. She hopes to contribute to the work of social justice-oriented planning informed by anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and equity-based placemaking. Her planning thesis is currently exploring the alternative planning practices of faith-based organizations in the neoliberal city.

Friends of Planning Graduate Scholarship for Innovation

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Emily Power Emily Power is a student in the Master of Science in Planning program. Her master’s thesis looks at tenant dispossession and landlord accumulation under COVID-19 in Toronto, by tracking the expansion of financialized landlord holdings and analyzing rates of rent arrears and evictions. Emily is a graduate student fellow with the U of T Mobility Lab, doing research on transit-induced gentrification and displacement resulting from Hamilton’s light rail transit project. She is also a research assistant with the Affordable Housing Challenge Project, led by Dr. Susannah Bunce and Dr. Alan Walks. Under the supervision of Dr. Walks, she is doing research on Canadian public sector pension fund investments in rental housing. Emily is active in tenant organizing in Hamilton where she lives.

Friends of Planning Graduate Scholarship for Innovation

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Alexandra Lambropoulos Alexandra is in her first year pursuing a Masters of Science in Planning. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Human Geography (major), Urban Studies (major) and GIS (minor). Alexandra is interested in researching urban planning strategies and policies that develop strong communities and solutions for the cities of tomorrow, especially where they intersect with arts, community economic development, resilience, and technology. She is also very interested in urban planning in African cities, which she explores through her monthly podcast Urban Limitrophe and as a researcher at The Reach Alliance.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

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Jane O’Brien Davis Jane is a MScPl student in the Department of Geography and Planning. Her interests lie in heritage planning, cultural planning, and public histories. Jane’s research looks at countermonuments and alternative commemorations of space and place. She is interested in how grassroots organizing in Canadian cities engages with built heritage in a settler colonial context.

Geography & Planning Award for Black Students

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Brooke Fleming Brooke is passionate about sustainable and equitable city building. She strives to understand how to develop communities in which everyone can thrive. The background she acquired through her undergraduate degree and previous post graduate studies have created a strong foundation in understanding people and how they interact with their environments. Her most recent experience in municipal planning exposed her to the influence of politics and policy in the planning process. As such, her major research paper focuses on creating dementia inclusive communities through land use strategies and design targeting municipal policy recommendations.

Graduate Geography & Planning Student Society (GGAPSS) Bursary Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

106

Bethany Wong Bethany Wong is a second year MScPl student at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning. Bethany completed their undergraduate degree at McGill University in Sustainability, Science, and Society. In their work, Bethany is interested in advocating for affordable housing, community-led planning, and planning through a decolonial and antiracist lens. Their planning thesis will explore how queer, trans and racialized youth access safe and affordable housing in Toronto. Using their research, Bethany hopes to produce a zine for community circulation, creating a resource for queer youth seeking housing and an archive of Toronto’s queer history.

Outside of class, Bethany enjoys DJing, exploring Toronto’s neighbourhoods, and riding the TTC.

Ian D. Macpherson Award

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

107

Demetra Barbacuta Demetra is completing her second year in the MScPl program. Influenced by her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences, she entered the program with an interest in integrating public health into planning practices. While this interest has persisted and underlies everything she does, her interests have also expanded to include the role of streets, streets as public space, and sustainable modes of transportation. Her planning thesis will be dedicated to analyzing the equitable distribution of slow streets in Toronto and Los Angeles. She also works as a research assistant, exploring pandemic responses implemented in North American cities.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

108

Serena Sonnenberg Serena’s area of interest is equity of mobility and access within the built environment. She has researched community access to bicycles as a commuting tool at the City of Austin, supported safe-routes-to-school research at the Susan and Michael Dell Center for Healthy Living, studied the logistics of carrier cycles and suburban active mobility networks at Our Greenway Conservancy, researched accessibility in multi-use trails with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and supported research on COVID-19 street reallocations with Professor Paul Hess. Her own research relates to Indigenous placekeeping and the relationship between culture, community health, and the built environment.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

109

Alexandra Haag Alexandra is a transportation planner and civil engineer. Her research interests involve investigating the complex relationships between transportation and urban form, mobility justice, and how relations of power shape (and are shaped by) mobility and place.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

110

Emily Huang Emily is a student 2nd year Master of Science in Planning student. Her work explores land use planning, park development, and community engagement. Her current research examines green open space systems of Toronto and Shanghai. She draws primarily on qualitative research methods including empirical analysis of changes to green open spaces. Emily is also a student of the Collaborative Specialization in Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

111

Siobhan Kelly Siobhan Kelly is a second-year student in the Master of Science in Planning program. Interested in the unintended outcomes of policy and regulation, Siobhan’s graduate research explores the role, impacts, and limitations of angular planes in regulating transitions between different scales of development. With her research, Siobhan hopes to motivate planners and urban designers to question the status quo, including conventions in planning practice. In addition to her studies, Siobhan works as a Research Assistant with the Department of Geography & Planning, contributing to faculty research that examines how customers with disabilities use and experience accessible taxis in Toronto. Siobhan also serves as a student representative on the Ontario Professional Planners Institute’s Student Liaison Committee.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

112

Jorge Quesada Davies Jorge is a graduating MSc Urban Planning student whose research interests focus on sustainable mobility, public space, and urban form. While working in the policy sector with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Emerging Technologies Office, Jorge developed an interest in New Mobility planning and sustainable urban form. In his graduate research, Jorge is currently investigating the land use opportunities related to Mobility-as-a-Service and other New Mobility modes in the GTHA and Metro Vancouver.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

113

Rameez Sadafal Rameez Sadafal is a second-year MScPl student specializing in environmental planning. Rameez’s research focuses on utilizing Ontario’s planning process to protect and restore natural heritage systems and their respective biodiversity. This includes identifying the value that nature provides to the environment through essential ecosystem services such flood prevention, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation. Currently, Rameez is writing his planning thesis on the various land-use planning strategies employed along the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve.

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

114

Brooke Fleming Brooke is passionate about sustainable and equitable city building. She strives to understand how to develop communities in which everyone can thrive. The background she acquired through her undergraduate degree and previous post graduate studies have created a strong foundation in understanding people and how they interact with their environments. Her most recent experience in municipal planning exposed her to the influence of politics and policy in the planning process. As such, her major research paper focuses on creating dementia inclusive communities through land use strategies and design targeting municipal policy recommendations.

Mitchell Goldhar Award for Excellent Achievement

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

115

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu Michael Liu is a second-year Urban Planning student interested in a variety of urban planning issues. He is interested in growing urban nature and ensuring sufficient urban space to accommodate a growing population. He wants to learn and explore how urban areas can be planned to ensure vegetation and people can co-exist to achieve a more environmentally sustainable future. His personal interest is taking walks and pictures, and he always walks around to look for interesting things to capture in the city.

Mitchell Goldhar Award for Excellent Achievement

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

116

Madeline Barnes Planer Madeline is a MscPl student currently researching community derived heritage practices. Her writing focuses on the redevelopment of Toronto’s Gay Village, and how 2SLGBTQIA+ can be better incorporated into planning processes. She believes that clear understanding of the social significance of this contested space through the eyes of those who interact with and value it, will better place both developing bodies and advocates for The Village’s importance, when approaching future developments critically and with community interest in mind. Madeline’s work draws on queer theory, as well as precedents for alternative methods of community engagement.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

117

Yu-Chen Chuang Yu-Chen Chuang is a first year student in the MScPl program at the University of Toronto. Before coming to Canada, she was trained in Anthropology at National Taiwan University and worked on the history of Indigenous land dispossession, as well as issues of Indigenous urban migration in Taiwan.

Her broad research interest is to identify the legacy of colonialism and technocracy in environmental management and explore the possibilities for just sustainabilities. Currently, her research seeks to understand the relationship between climate adaptation policies and the ongoing processes of colonialism in Taiwan. Her research keywords include climate adaptation, vulnerabilities, post-disaster planning, expertise and colonialism.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

118

Brian Eng Brian is a Master of Science in Planning student interested in social planning, land-use planning and urban design.

His years of living abroad and decades of experience as a secondary department chair, teacher and guidance counsellor in various public and private schools in Canada, China, Costa Rica, Taiwan and Thailand has informed his research interests about the importance of personal narratives and community-based planning in shaping equitable and socially just planning practices. He is interested in exploring how the inclusion of racialized youth from underserved communities and public schools can foster placemaking and more inclusive design of public spaces. He also wants to investigate how public policies and community-based planning approaches can mitigate the negative impact of gentrification in Chinatowns in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Broader planning interests developed vis-à-vis the courses in the program include: planning policy and initiatives in the Global South, tactical planning, heritage conservation, queerying planning, and multicultural and anti-colonial planning.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

119

Marjan Fadaei Marjan is a first year graduate student in the Master of Science in Planning program at the University of Toronto. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning and Design. She practiced as an Urban Designer before joining the graduate school during which she worked on various urban projects across a range of scales. Her research interests include inclusive planning for enhanced mobility in cities, particularly for children with disability, and the role of neighborhoods and streets to promote Children’s play.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

120

Haron Qudoosi Haron is an urban planning student who is passionate about all things Toronto. His main interests include critical urbanism, citizenship, local democracy and political economy. Haron has degrees in political science and takes influence from that field of study in his current academic pursuits.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

121

Sami Ferwati Sami is in his first year in the Masters of Science in Planning program. Before attending the University of Toronto Sami attended McMaster University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Geography.

He is also a part of the Graduate Geography and Planning Student Society (GGAPSS), where he serves as the VP of Space. Sami’s primary research interests in planning surround housing, economic development, urban design, and how people interact with their urban environment.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

122

Lauren Foote Lauren Foote (she/her) is a first-year graduate student in the MScPl program and she is in the environmental concentration. She currently serves both as the 2021-22 VP Internal for GGAPSS and as a board member on the Toronto Transportation Commission’s Advisory Committee for Transportation. Lauren combines her love of environmental conservation and her passion for disability justice and transportation in both her professional and academic life.

Currently, she interns as an Operations and Service Planner for Metrolinx, is a Teaching Assistant for an undergraduate environmental course called Biogeography, is an Invigilator for Persons with Disabilities at UofT’s Accessibility Services Centre, and she researches strategies to incorporate environmental justice requirements into planning and policy for children with disabilities at Holland Bloorview Research Institute. Lauren is particularly interested in planning strategies related to natural hazard mitigation and community equity. In her time off, Lauren enjoys hiking, painting, and adding to her rock collection.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

123

Joycelyn Guan Joycelyn Guan (they/them) is in their first year in the MScPl program situated in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. After taking an undergraduate course in Critical Disability Studies, they became interested in understanding the social construction of disability and its relationship to space. They are interested in co-building accessible spaces and communities with a specific focus and attention to neurodiversity and disability justice. Joycelyn’s research interest is in the co-creation of accessible communities and space (vis-à-vis transportation, language, etc) and the redistribution of resources through community economic development.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

124

In Chan (Ian) Hwang Ian (he/him) is a first-generation immigrant coming from Seoul, Korea and a first-year MScPl student specializing in transportation planning.

He is interested in public transit, transit-oriented development, sports infrastructure, and suburban development. Prior to joining the MScPl program, Ian worked with Toronto city councillors as an administrative assistant and partnered with the City of Toronto as part of the School of Cities’ Multidisciplinary Urban Capstone Program to develop strategies aimed at activating nightlife outside of the downtown core. He has a BA in Urban Studies and Human Geography at the University of Toronto.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

125

Alexandra Lambropoulos Alexandra is in her first year pursuing a Masters of Science in Planning. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Human Geography (major), Urban Studies (major) and GIS (minor). Alexandra is interested in researching urban planning strategies and policies that develop strong communities and solutions for the cities of tomorrow, especially where they intersect with arts, community economic development, resilience, and technology. She is also very interested in urban planning in African cities, which she explores through her monthly podcast Urban Limitrophe and as a researcher at The Reach Alliance.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

126

Sarah MacKinnon Sarah is a first-year MScPl student, pursing the Environmental Planning concentration. Prior to entering the MScPl program, Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Geography from Queen’s University, in addition to completing certificates in GIS and Urban Planning Studies. Her research interests include climate change adaptation planning and building resilient cities in the face of urban natural hazards. More specifically, she intends on researching the ways Canadian cities are planning for climate change-induced urban flooding and its impacts on infrastructure and vulnerable populations.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

127

Naziha Nasrin Naziha is currently a first year MscPl student in the department of Geography and Planning. She is passionate about social policy, advocacy and community development. She is currently researching on the development of mosques and zoning-by laws in the GTA to advocate for the needs of the Muslim community through inclusive community engagement and zoning by-laws.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

128

Jane O’Brien Davis Jane is a MScPl student in the Department of Geography and Planning. Her interests lie in heritage planning, cultural planning, and public histories.

Jane’s research looks at counter-monuments and alternative commemorations of space and place.

She is interested in how grassroots organizing in Canadian cities engages with built heritage in a settler colonial context.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

129

Lakshmi Soundarapandian Lakshmi is a first year MScPl student exploring equity driven real estate development and urban design. Through opportunities to live and study in cities across the world, Lakshmi became passionate about investigating how cities can learn from each other and function more sustainably. Now, Lakshmi has centered her learning in understanding land use, spatial analysis, and urban design in relation to diasporas, cultural placemaking, and community engagement. She hopes to work in urban and real estate development to create built environments that reflect local and global values. Lakshmi is currently a Research Assistant for Dr. Lindsay Stephens, investigating solutions for challenges in accessibility and accommodations faced by students in healthcare fields.

She additionally serves as a Planning Alumni Committee Representative in GGAPSS. Lakshmi is also an Indian Classical dancer and the Co-Founder and President of a Vancouver-based non-profit for dance, Asta Alliance.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

130

Travis Van Wyck Travis is a MScPl student interested in the intersections between planning, economic development, and cultural production in urban nighttime economies. His research looks at the relationship between contemporary nighttime governance practices and the social, economic, and political characteristics of subcultural scenes and spaces. More specifically, Travis is examining the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) placemaking practices in Toronto’s resurgent underground rave scene to consider potential avenues for establishing equitable artistic, cultural, and nighttime policies without instrumentalizing, displacing, or marginalizing alternative cultures, scenes, and spaces.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

131

Celia Wandio Celia is a first year MScPl graduate student. Her research and professional interests are informed by her prior work experiences in the non-profit housing sector. Celia is interested in traditional non-profit and public housing as well as alternative community-based models of affordable housing provision, including community land trusts and manufactured home resident-owned communities.

She is also interested in government policies related to the private rental sector, and particularly their impact on affordability and security of tenure for low-income tenants.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

132

Christa Yeung Christa is a Master of Science in Planning student with research interests in public space, design justice, race and gender equity, and abolition.

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

133

Alycia Doering Alycia Doering is completing her Master of Science in Planning with a focus on social policy and urban design.

Her place-based work emphasizes the connections between culture, community, race, and affordable space from an intersectional social justice lens. She is driven to investigate social policy and communitybased mechanisms that can support places which embrace a sense of place, identity, and belonging. More specifically, Alycia’s final research project, titled Future Diasporas, aims to celebrate and amplify the stories of racialized diasporic artists as they reconcile with their past, negotiate the present amid unaffordable urban landscapes, and make space for just and flourishing futures. She is grateful to be supported by exceptional team members in developing projects on public washrooms, winter placemaking, and reimagining music venues– all projects that take a future forward direction.

Peter R. Walker Planning Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

134

Brooke Fleming Brooke is passionate about sustainable and equitable city building. She strives to understand how to develop communities in which everyone can thrive. The background she acquired through her undergraduate degree and previous post graduate studies have created a strong foundation in understanding people and how they interact with their environments. Her most recent experience in municipal planning exposed her to the influence of politics and policy in the planning process. As such, her major research paper focuses on creating dementia inclusive communities through land use strategies and design targeting municipal policy recommendations.

Peter R. Walker Planning Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

135

Sara Eng Sara is a second-year student in the MScPL program at the University of Toronto. She is interested in how urban design and land use policies impact the sustainability of communities. Sara has taken a specific interest in the role that transportation has in providing mobility options and structuring new neighbourhoods. Sara’s planning thesis evaluates how successful Transit-Oriented Development has been at increasing active transportation and producing a variety of housing options. She hopes this research will provide insight on how to shape vibrant and equitable communities across the country.

The U of T Planning Alumni Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

136

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu Michael is a second-year student in the Planning program. Having lived in Taichung, Vancouver, and Toronto, he has experienced many urban successes and has thought about solutions to the challenges.

His interest in planning touches many aspects, including land use planning, housing, transportation, and environmental planning. Currently, he uses GIS to examine tree canopy coverage changes within Major Transit Station Areas in Toronto to identify the land use planning implication of urban environmental sustainability. Michael is also an urban explorer who loves to go on long walks with his camera to capture interesting angles of urban living.

The U of T Planning Alumni Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

137

Sara Wasim Sara is a second-year Master of Science in Planning (MScPl) student researching strategies for effective mega-infrastructure delivery in Canada. Sara is currently part of the Social Purpose Real Estate team at the Infrastructure Institute, where she is working on the SPRE training modules. One of the things that draws Sara to the field of planning is its interdisciplinary nature, which allows her to explore a wide range of her interests in transportation and infrastructure, affordable housing, and sustainability.

The U of T Planning Alumni Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

138

Syeda Bushra Binte Amin Syeda Bushra Binte Amin is a second-year MScPl student in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. She is interested in community planning and city management. She is also interested in how planning tools alleviate or create barriers for communities. Currently, she is focusing her research on exploring community governance options for non-profit organizations in managing a capital asset. Before joining the program, Syeda worked as an urban planner in the capital development authority in Bangladesh.

Thomas Luther Panton Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

139

Nida Mirza Nida Mirza is a second-year Master of Science in Planning (MScPl) student. She completed her undergrad at UofT in political science, history and the study of religion. After working in the public sector at the federal level, she became interested in local-level politics drawing her to planning. Her research interests include the intersections of faith and planning, Indigenous/settler relations, equitable housing and climate resiliency. She hopes to contribute to the work of social justice-oriented planning informed by anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and equity-based placemaking. Her planning thesis is currently exploring the alternative planning practices of faith-based organizations in the neoliberal city.

Thomas Luther Panton Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

140

Peter R. Walker Master of Science in Planning Fellowship

Tooba Ahmad Ariella Barmash Claire Champagne Elizabeth Marcus

Matthew W.F. Hanson Scholarship in Planning

Swadah Ismail

Suzanne Merchant

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

141

Ext rnal

Message from the Chair

Richard DiFrancesco, Chair, Geography & Planning, St. George Department On behalf of my colleagues in the St. George Department of Geography & Planning, I would like to congratulate our external award winners for all they have achieved this past year. External awards are an important indicator of the quality of our programs and of the abilities of our students, and this has been yet another great year full of undergraduate and graduate student successes. To our students, let me say that your hard work and ingenuity have brought honour to yourselves and to the department. I hope you feel tremendous pride; I know my colleagues and I feel proud to support and witness your achievements. We wish you much success and happiness moving forward.

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

144

Award Descriptions Donald F. Putnam & George Tatham Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Edward Sorbara & BILD Ontario Graduate Scholarship

ESRI Canada Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Science and Technology

Michael Ralph Walsh Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established in honour of two of the Department’s first three faculty members, Donald Putnam and George Tatham.

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and the endowment established by a donation by Mr. Edward Sorbara and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying planning and has obtained firstclass standing.

Created through a program of the Province of Ontario and an endowment established by ESRI Canada and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying geography and has obtained first-class standing.

Created through a program of the Province of Ontario and an endowment established in memory of Michael Ralph Walsh, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who has obtained first-class standing.

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

145

Award Descriptions Neptis Foundation Ontario Graduate Scholarships in Geography & Planning Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by the Neptis Foundation and the University of Toronto, these awards are presented to outstanding graduate students who are studying geography and planning and have obtained first-class standing.

William G. Dean Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science & Technology Established by Dr. William G. Dean, the scholarship is awarded to a graduate student studying physical geography.

Urban Strategies Ontario Graduate Scholarship

J.M. Tomczak Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by Urban Strategies and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying geography or planning and has obtained first-class standing.

Created through a program of the province of Ontario and an endowment established by J. Michael Tomczak and the University of Toronto, this award is presented to an outstanding graduate student who is studying human geography and has achieved firstclass standing.

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

146

AWARD RECIPIENTS

Drew Kaufman Drew’s research explores how a growing market for debt from low-and-middle-income countries relates to the rise of the financial sector and histories of uneven development. His work follows capital as it is lent to the Global South by way of sovereign bonds before tracing its path through global debt markets. He maintains an active interest in issues of affordable housing and homelessness.

Donald F. Putnam & George Tatham Ontario Graduate Scholarship Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

148

Sophie Roussy Sophie’s research focuses on the intersection of transportation-related air pollution (TRAP), marginalization, human exposure, including its equitable distribution, and health outcomes.

Specifically, her research uses spatial interpolation techniques to model the spatial distribution of TRAP, with a specific focus on ambient benzene pollution, across regions of Toronto. From there, here research employs spatial analysis techniques, statistical models, and established dose-response relationships of the air pollutants to health outcomes to examine associations between level of marginalization and disparities in human exposure to TRAP and subsequent health risks, thereby identifying environmentally-driven health disparities.

Dr. Ranbir Singh Khanna Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Environment

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

149

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu Michael Liu is a second-year Urban Planning student interested in a variety of urban planning issues. He is interested in growing urban nature and ensuring sufficient urban space to accommodate a growing population. He wants to learn and explore how urban areas can be planned to ensure vegetation and people can co-exist to achieve a more environmentally sustainable future. His personal interest is taking walks and pictures, and he always walks around to look for interesting things to capture in the city.

Edward Sorbara & BILD Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

150

Kamille LeClair Kamille LeClair is a second-year MA student in Geography. As part of her thesis, she is currently leading the development of an equity-scoring tool for the City of Toronto. The final product will be used to evaluate and prioritize projects managed at the Transportation Services Division. Kamille is passionate about her work and wants to keep designing practical, equity-forward solutions for cities of all sizes in the future.

ESRI Canada Scholarship in Science & Technology

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

151

Zahra Moloo Zahra Moloo is a 2nd year Kenyan-Canadian PhD student in Geography at the University of Toronto.

Her work focuses on biodiversity conservation, the postcolonial state, capitalism, and extractivism.

Specifically, her research project focuses on violent geographies and the creation of national parks in the Congo Basin. She has also worked as an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her writing and films have appeared in Al Jazeera, CBC Docs, The New Humanitarian, Africa is a Country and the Jacobin. She also works with ETC Group, an organization that monitors the impact of emerging technologies and corporate strategies on biodiversity, agriculture and human rights.

J.M. Tomczak Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

152

Melissa Serafino Melissa Serafino is a MA student pursing a collaborative specialization in human geography and environmental studies at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning and School of the Environment. Her research focuses on questions of environmental and social equity within global supply chains. Specifically, she looks at how segments of the population, in particular, women of colour, are disproportionately impacted by issues of climate change which are driven by the production of modern garment manufacturing. Recognizing the huge impact of the fashion industry on the workers and the environment, her work lies at the intersections of environmental sustainability and social justice.

Michael Ralph Walsh Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

153

Shi Shu Hong Shuhong is a second-year MSc student in Physical Geography, whose research involves the use of highfrequency sonde data and limnological sampling to determine how seasonality impacts the chemistry and biology of temperate ponds. Her research interests include lake metabolism and the effect of seasonality on aquatic invertebrate communities. Shuhong hopes that her research will help to paint a more complete picture of what happens in lakes over the course of a full year, as winter processes are largely understudied.

Neptis Foundation Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Planning

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

154

Sara Eng Sara is a second-year student in the MScPL program at the University of Toronto. She is interested in how urban design and land use policies impact the sustainability of communities.

Sara has taken a specific interest in the role that transportation has in providing mobility options and structuring new neighbourhoods. Sara’s planning thesis evaluates how successful TransitOriented Development has been at increasing active transportation and producing a variety of housing options. She hopes this research will provide insight on how to shape vibrant and equitable communities across the country.

Neptis Foundation Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Geography

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

155

Alexandra Lambropoulos Alexandra is in her first year pursuing a Masters of Science in Planning. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Human Geography (major), Urban Studies (major) and GIS (minor). Alexandra is interested in researching urban planning strategies and policies that develop strong communities and solutions for the cities of tomorrow, especially where they intersect with arts, community economic development, resilience, and technology. She is also very interested in urban planning in African cities, which she explores through her monthly podcast Urban Limitrophe and as a researcher at The Reach Alliance.

Urban Strategies Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

156

Mickey Chen Mickey’s research interests lies in understanding fire regimes in the Alaska-Yukon region (collectively referred to as Eastern Beringia), which was unglaciated during the last ice age.

On this unglaciated landscape, Late Quaternary megafauna fed on a nutrient rich steppe-like biome until its gradual replacement by advancing boreal forests. It is possible that wildfire, acting as an agent of climate warming, played an important role in the replacement of ancient steppe with boreal forests. Understanding the cascading effects of re-vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions during the last major warming event will be critical to better evaluate future fire regimes and environmental trends which can alter the viability of human habitation in various communities around the globe.

Wiliam G. Dean Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Science and Technology Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

157

NATIONAL AWARDS RECOGNITION

SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship

Gabrielle Doiron

Alex Tabascio

Gyoorie Kim

Jonah Olsen

Charlotte Corelli

Julie Han

Mariba Douglas

Antony Riley

Katherine Yee

Priscilla Ankomah-Hackman

SSHRC Doctoral Award

Loren March

Ruilin Yang

Shaheer Tarar

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

159

Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Scholarship NSERC Canada Scholarship

Madeline Barnes Planer Sarah Mackinnon Jane O’Brien Davis

Elysia Fuller-Thomson

Taylor Luu

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

160

Ontario Graduate Scholarship

Diala Lteif

Suzanne Merchant

Connie Yang

Garrett Morgan

Victoria Nimmo

Hassan Nima

Irenius Konkor

Alexandra Lambropoulos

Jae Page

Michael (Chun Fu) Liu

Emily Hawes

Shervin Ghaem-Maghami

Sara Eng

Geography & Planning Awards 2021-22

161

Designed by Natalia Zdaniuk 2022