Geoplan-2001-Spring
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Published by the University of Toronto Department of Geography & Program in Planning and SPRING 2001 The University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni (UTAGA) Circulation: 4,650 Our time in Nam Introducing… By Zoe Meletis, M.Sc.Pl. candidate As a second year planning student, I Last summer three students from the am currently writing my Current Issues GeoTrips Department of Geography & Program in paper, under the supervision of Professor By Kyle Knoeck, M.Sc.Pl. 9T7 Planning, Angela Palladino, M.A. Katharine Rankin. It is a paper that will Forget the lectures. Forget the readings. candidate, James Gray-Donald, M.A. go to a local client, Toronto-based Gems of Forget the charming anecdotes told by your 0T0, and I were given the opportunity to Hope, a Non-Governmental Organization eccentric professor. The best part of take part in the WASTE ECON Project—a involved in the WASTE ECON project. In studying either geography or planning at five year collaborative programme Vietnam I conducted literature surveys, the University of Toronto was always the administered by the University of Toronto participated in interviews and attended field trip. under the direction of Professor Virginia meetings in Hanoi and Hai Phong. I had This spring, UTAGA hosts two Maclaren, and funded by the Canadian the opportunity to speak with sixteen waste GeoTrips – day trips for geographers and International Development Agency pickers and learn about the difficult yet planners in the spirit of the geography class (CIDA). The fascinating lives field trip. The trips are a chance to explore project’s main they lead, the geography of Toronto and Southern goal is to increase providing an Ontario, enjoy the outdoors, and spend a knowledge invisible yet very bit of time with other alumni and faculty. sharing between valuable service to On Saturday, April 21, Professor Canada, Vietnam, Hanoi’s residents. Tony Davis will lead a trip to explore the Cambodia and When the three of physical geography of the Niagara Laos with regards us were travelling Escarpment. Tony will first take the group to solid waste through Hoi An to Lion’s Park, north of Oakville, to check management. near the end of our out Sixteen Mile Creek and the late When we stay, I also had Ordovician Queenston Formation. From arrived in many “Margaret there, the group will head further down the Vietnam, we all Mead”road to Mount Nemo, near Milton, to begin experienced our experiences, a 4 kilometer hike up and along the own versions of stopping my bike escarpment. (A note from Tony—you need culture shock. on several good walking shoes or hiking boots for this Everything from occasions, to be trip!) The trip promises to be interesting crossing the street, Zoe Meletis visits a waste purchasing household invited into the and invigorating. Transportation is to using the in Hoi An, Vietnam. Summer 2000. homes of waste provided. washrooms to processors and to For those alumni who prefer to explore arranging meetings was a new experience. chat with them about their livelihoods. the city, on Saturday, May 12, Professor I was researching micro-credit possibilities Angela was conducting research for Gunter Gad will pound the pavement of for waste pickers, Jamie was conducting her M.A. thesis, under Professor the old garment district and Chinatown, environmental education research and Maclaren’s supervision. She had the leading his tour, “The Changing Faces of Angela was looking into industrial waste challenging task of interviewing Spadina.” Gunter will lead the group to management. After having adjusted to and representatives from local factories and discover the gritty details of this legendary, embraced our surroundings, we learned a companies and also had the rare continued on page 16 tremendous amount from our research opportunity to go inside local plants, to projects but ultimately gained from the photograph them and to become intimately entire experience. We were immersed in a acquainted with their waste management culture completely different from our own, practices and policies. Highlights...** with wonderful smells and sights that we James, now a Ph.D. candidate at OISE/ Department News.................2 will never forget and could never fully have UT, was also collecting data for his M.A. Grad Program Announcements...6 understood had we only read about them thesis under the supervision of Professor. in a book. Maclaren. He found many key literature More than just a few awards........8 Thanks to WASTE ECON and the sources in Vietnam that had not been Thanks.........................11 University’s ties with local authorities in available to him here and also had the UTAGA News.........................16 Vietnam, we were honoured with opportunity to visit an Eco-village, a Missing Alumni........................17 invitations to an environmental conference National Park and speak with many of those attended by the Princess of Thailand. We pioneering environmental education in And much, much, more! also met with municipal officials and Vietnam. experts in various fields. continued on page 6 GEOPLAN / SPRING 2001 **Note--this is a web version of the newsletter. To obtain a full PAGE 1 copy contact the UTAGA Office--see page 20. Department News the management of resources and provision continued into her doctoral research, Arrivals of public services. but changed course completely: her We wish to welcome the following How does she feel about her move to dissertation examined the iconographies of individuals to the department. Toronto? "It was a bit of a cold start having nineteenth century paper currencies. In Sharon Brown has been hired as arrived in Toronto in late December, but I other words she looked at how the images “Project Manager” for the WASTE ECON am really happy with the warm welcome on paper money both revealed and Project. Sharon received her Bachelors I’ve received from the faculty, staff and concealed prevailing cultural and economic degree from U of T in Environmental students in the department. I feel very ideologies, and how these images and Science. Most recently she was employed lucky to have joined the U of T and even discourses changed as money become more as the Business Officer for the Department with the below-zero wind-chill, I think centralized in the hands of government. Her of Immunology and previously as a Toronto is a great city." postdoctoral research drew upon this Technical Assistant for the Toronto Emily Gilbert joined the University analysis, but became much more focused Remedial Action Plan for the Toronto of Toronto on January 1, 2001. She is cross- on the formation of national currencies and Waterfront with the Ontario Ministry of appointed between the Canadian Studies their links to burgeoning national identity, Environment and Energy. Program and the Department of Geography. particularly among the former colonies Alana Boland joined the department Her teaching in Geography will be at the of Australia, South Africa and Canada. on January 1, 2001 as an Assistant graduate level, while her undergraduate Questions relating to nationalism and Professor. She will be teaching GGR270Y teaching is in Canadian Studies where she national identity continue to be at the center Introductory Analytical Methods (with Rick is currently teaching the two core courses: of her research as she seeks to broaden her DiFrancesco), GGR343H1 Changing Canada Today 1 and Canada Today 2. Her comparisons between Australia and Canada Geography of China, GGR439H1 Global courses for the next academic year have not to also include issues relating to land and Geopolitics, as well as a graduate seminar yet been finalized, but she is hoping that landscape, culture, multiculturalism, focused on development and the in addition to her graduate course in economy and politics. environment. geography, she will be able to offer an How does she feel about coming to U Professor Boland received her B.A. in undergraduate course on Canadian land of T? "I am delighted to be at U of T for Physics from Reed College, Portland, and landscape that will be cross-listed with reasons too many to list. I am particularly Oregon in 1987, her M.A. in China Studies the geography department. pleased to be connected with two dynamic from the University of Washington in 1995 Professor Gilbert received a Bachelor’s programs—Geography and Canadian and her Ph.D. in Geography from the degree in English Language and Literature Studies—and I hope to draw upon and University of Washington is currently and a Master’s degree in Geography at York strengthen the links between the two pending. University. Her PhD was undertaken in the communities, both at U of T and Broadly speaking her research interests Department of Geography at Bristol elsewhere." bring together China-based research with University, UK. Before coming to the urban studies and the political geography University of Toronto, she held a Social Departures of environmental transformation and Sciences and Humanities Research Council Jiri Werner, our technician and development. In her current research, she (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship at general factotum, is retiring after 32 years is examining local-level responses to the Queen’s University. of service. It will be difficult to replace him commercialization of water supply in some Her research interests in geography and hard to think of him not being around. of the larger cities of China. More were initially in the intersection of Jiri came to Canada from generally, she is interested in the influence geography and literature and the ways that Czechoslovakia in 1966 and two years later of China’s recent reforms in urban women have written about and related to joined the department. Although he was governance and environmental policy on the city. Her interest in cultural geographies trained as a machinist, the demands of his Professor Alana Boland Professor Emily Gilbert Jiri Werner performs one of his many talents! PAGE 2 GEOPLAN / SPRING 2001 new job required that he quickly accumulate a range of other skills.