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Faculty of Arts and Science

Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability

Sustainability Across Disciplines conference

March 16-17, 2017 | Concordia University

Over the course of the two days, we heard presentations from 38 Concordia graduate and undergraduate students and from faculty members across disciplines, from music to management.

Renowned ecologist Daniel Simberloff gave an inspiring talk about the importance of an environmental ethics and acclaimed industrial ecologist Marian Chertow presented some potential solutions.

Schedule of events

March 16 keynote talks

9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

  • "Design Experimentations with Community for Activating Ecological Knowledge," Carmela Cucuzzella

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

  • "The Limits of Nature: Ecosystem Services and the Sustainability of Biodiversity," Daniel Simberloff

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

  • "Towards International Equity in Global Climate Mitigation Efforts," Damon Matthews

March 17 keynote talks

9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

  • "Industrial Ecology: Closing the Loop," Marian Chertow

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

  • "Our Work, Our Walk: Land, Meaning, and Sustainability on Métis and Indigenous Trails," Matthew Anderson

4:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.

  • "Sustainability Research Across Disciplines," Ketra Schmitt, Jochen Jaeger and Ricardo Dal Farra

Student presenter awards

To recognize the hard work our students do and the inspiration they bring to sustainability studies, all student presenters were entered into the student award competition.

Presentations were judged by a team of experts in the field, and poster presentations were voted on by conference participants through anonymous ballot throughout the connference.

Although we are proud of all our student presenters for their great work, the following were particularly notable:

Best graduate student presentation

  1. Arun Dayanandan for "Frightened fish: a novel approach to life skills training of Atlantic salmon (Salmo solar)."
  2. Stefania Strantza for "International environmental agreements – the impact of heterogeneity among countries."

Best undergraduate student presentation

  1. Maggie Winchester and Katherine Spilka for "Sprouting minds for the food revolution."
  2. Mikaela Kautzky for "The art of going zero waste."

Best poster presentation

  1. Leif Schenstead-Harris for "Unsustainable islands? Climate justice and migration in the South Pacific."
  2. Elizabeth Lawrence for "Population richness of North American fishes." 

Friday, March 13

In person on the Loyola Campus in the Science Hub building (HU).

9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

  • "Biodiversity Fresque" with Emma Despland, in HU 115 conference room 

9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

  • "Undergraduate honours research for a healthy planet: Cities, spaces, places, and landscapes," in HU-115

11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

  • "Issues in biodiversity and planetary health," with Jochen Jaeger, Noa Davidai, Arielle Limoges, Isabel Drummond, and Lisa Ofili, in HU-115

12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

  • Lunch in HU-115

1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

  • "Working across complexity: Creative approaches to interdisciplinary collaboration for sustainability," with Heather McLaughlin and Annabelle Brault, in HU-115

2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

  • "Issues in well-being and justice," with Dalia Assi, Andrée Tremblay, Catherine Rokakis, Audrey Basic, and Sofia Ithaca Bandel, in HU-125

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

  • "Sustainable peer-based leisure activity: Drawing insight from Traumatic Brain Injury Health," with Shawn Wilkinson, Elizabeth Teel, Enrico Quilico, Pascal Brodeur, and Eric Tessier, in HU-125

Territorial Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtià:ke/Montréal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community. 

If you are not joining from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, you can learn more about the land you are on.

Special thanks

A big thank you is due to our numerous partners:

  • Office of the Vice President of Research & Graduate Studies
  • Faculty of Arts and Science
  • John Molson School of Business
  • Department of Biology
  • Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
  • Department of History
  • Department of Design and Computation Arts
  • David O’Brien Center for Sustainable Enterprise
  • CN Centre for Studies in Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • First People's Studies Program
  • Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Graduate Student Committee
  • Centre for Engineering in Society

A special thank you to Matthew Anderson, Carmela Cucuzzella, Ricardo Dal Farra, Jochen Jaeger, Damon Matthews, and Ketra Schmitt for their enlightening presentations, and to Daniel Simberloff and Marian Chertow for joining us from in the United States and share their inspiring work. 

This event will contribute to Concordia's Sustainability Action Plan by increasing the visibility of sustainability research at Concordia. 

Please review the code of conduct for detailed guidelines on how participants are expected to treat each other with consideration and respect.

Check out past conferences

Contact us

For more information or questions, please get in touch with Rebecca Tittler.

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