Geospectives Seminar Series 2012-2013

Organizing committee:  Benjamin Forest (coordinator), Knut Kitching, and Maxwell Farrell

GeoSpectives is the lecture series hosted by the Department of Geography. It is held in Burnside Hall, Room 426, 3-4:30 PM on Fridays in fall semester and on Wednesdays in winter semester unless otherwise stated.

Date: September 14, 2012
Climate Change and Inuit Mental Health: Local Voices, Global Implications
Ashlee Cunsolo Willox
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Geography
McGill University

Anthropogenic climate change has become an increasing international concern, as peoples globally are already experiencing dramatic shifts in weather, climate, and environment. These changes are adversely impacting human health, with some scholars identifying climate change as the most significant threat to global health of the 21st Century. Emerging research indicates that climate change, and the resulting environmental alterations, also pose serious challenges for mental health and well-being, particularly among resource-dependent regions, those living in rural, remote, or ecologically-sensitive areas, and Indigenous populations. Drawing on data from community-led research conducted in the Inuit community of Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Labrador, this presentation will describe the pathways through which residents reported that climate change was negatively impacting mental health and health systems in the region, and highlight the need to work collaboratively with communities and regions to define research priorities, develop locally-appropriate mental health services, and design culturally-relevant adaptation strategies.

 

Date: September 28, 2012
Opposed Sets of Collective Action in a Conflict Context: Land Rights in Darfur
Prof. Jon Unruh
Department of Geography
McGill University
Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of International Development, and the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism

Land tenure in a conflict context presents particular challenges to recovery of institutions able to contribute to durable peace. In conflicts where land issues play a significant role, specific mixes of narratives and institutions produce sets of collective action regarding land that come to be set against one another. Resolving this is difficult because opposed narratives justifying how and why groups deserve access to land, or how groups were unjustly displaced or excluded from lands, become solidified in a conflict context. Left unattended, sets of opposed collective action regarding land become aggravated and their oppositional nature becomes highly problematic for durable peace. Nevertheless there are opportunities in such environments that suggest forms of collective action which may be able to mitigate the oppositional nature of such sets, contributing to a socio-political environment more conducive to a way forward. This paper presents findings from Darfur, where the land aspect of the conflict is acute, and group narratives and collective action play a primary role in the conflict, and also the prospects for peace.

Date: October 19, 2012
India on the Rise: Can Tuberculosis be Controlled?
Prof. Madhukar Pai
Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health
McGill University

India, by any metric, is going through a phenomenal growth spurt and progress is visible in many areas – from economic development to success in communications and technology. India’s rise in the field of science and technology has received attention in the recent past. Is India’s progress is reflected in how tuberculosis is controlled?

Date: November 2, 2012
Mapping Canadian Cinematographic Narratives
Prof. Sébastien Caquard
Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
Concordia University
Co-sponsored by the Digital Humanities Program and the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas

The objective of this research is to expand our understanding of Canada's geography through the mapping of cinematographic narratives. Mapping cinematographic narratives requires overcoming two major challenges. First, it calls for the transformation of complex audiovisual material into geographic data. Secondly, it calls for the development of new forms of geovisualization. This research project aims to address these issues through the development of a geoweb application. This application has been used to map the narratives of 46 contemporary Canadian films, revealing the geographic structures of contemporary Canadian cinematographic territories. Analysis of these structures identifies the existence of territories under- and over-represented by Canadian cinema, as well as territories of consensus and divergence that exist between different categories of Canadian cinema.

Date: November 16, 2012
Mapping Environmental Change in Coastal Waters of the Eastern North Pacific Revealed from the Sedimentary Microfossil Record
Prof. Vera Pospelova
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences University of Victoria

Understanding the causes and mechanisms of environmental change, whether it is related to climate change, ecosystem degradation due to natural variability, or anthropogenic activity, requires compilation of long term environmental data. When long-term measurements are scarce or unavailable, information can be obtained from sedimentary records that contain microfossils and geochemical proxies of past conditions. This presentation highlights research on the coastal and estuarine waters of western Canada, the United States and Mexico, a region influenced by the ENSO (El Niño/La Niña–Southern Oscillation) and PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation). The history of annual to decadal variability in these climate oscillations is revealed by the study of the microfossils found in marine sediments (particularly dinoflagellate cysts) which reflect changes freshwater input, sea surface temperature, and salinity.

Date: January 23
Critical Thermal Refugia for Atlantic Salmon and Brook Trout Populations of Eastern Canadian Rivers
Jan Franssen
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Geography
McGill University

Climate warming threatens to increase the severity of heat stress periods experienced by populations of cold water salmonids in Eastern Canada. During summer heat waves water temperatures in rivers that support populations of Atlantic salmon and Brook trout routinely exceed the upper tolerance thresholds for the growth and survival of these fish species. During these periods of heat stress Atlantic salmon and Brook trout have been observed to congregate in discrete zones of cooler water. These cool-water refugia are likely to be critical habitats which sustain local populations. As of now, little is known of the factors that control the availability and use these vital cool-water habitats. The absence of this knowledge precludes efforts to ascertain the susceptibility of these fish populations to expected increases in surface water temperatures resulting from climate warming. This talk will highlight current work being undertaken to better identify the spatial distribution and temporal variability of cool-water refugia used by Atlantic salmon and Brook trout in the rivers of eastern Canada

Date: February 6, 2013 at 4:00PM
Oaxaca 1977/Oaxaca 2006: Excavating lineages of political violence in Mexico
Prof. Patricia Martin
Department of Geography
University of Montreal
Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of International Development

In 1977, the city (and state) of Oaxaca, Mexico, was in the throes of a major political crisis. The conflict centered on the governance and mission of the Universidad Autónoma ‘Benito Juárez’ de Oaxaca, the local public state university. In May of 1977, a highly combative, broad coalition elected a new rector in a vote held among the entire university community. This revolutionary movement soon collapsed, however, from factional in-fighting and widespread state repression. My research explores three distinct dimensions of this political crisis based on interviews with participants and extensive archival research. First, I analyze the distinct forms of state-sponsored violence that shaped the trajectories and outcomes of the conflict. Secondly, I place the events within the transnational arc of cold war politics in Latin America, and the associated dynamics of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary political action. And, third, I trace the enduring legacies of state-sponsored violence and unresolved political conflict through a comparison with the 2006 political uprising in Oaxaca.

Date: February 20, 2013
Efficiency and effectiveness: Two directions in public participation for environmental decision-making and The new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and UN Habitat's approach to slum upgrading in Africa.
Prof. Thomas Meredith
Department of Geography
McGill University

Date: March 27, 2013 at 4:00PM
Sometimes Hunting Can Seem Like Business: Polar Bears, Sport Hunting and Climate Change
Prof. George Wenzel
Department of Geography
McGill University

Date: Tuesday, April 9 at 4:00PM (NOTE SPECIAL DAY AND TIME)
Access to destinations: The use of GIS in visualizing accessibility impacts of transportation infrastructure projects
Prof. Ahmed M. El-Geneidy
School of Urban Planning
McGill University

Transportation systems are built with the aim of providing accessibility to people to participate in activities distributed over space and time. Accessibility is a measure of potential opportunities for interaction (Hansen, 1959). It shows the collective performance of land use and transportation systems. In this presentation I will show how accessibility can be used as a key performance indicator in evaluating infrastructure projects in two transportation plans, Montreal Transportation Plan and The Big Move from Toronto. My presentation will concentrate on the use of GIS as a visualization tool to highlight changes in accessibility levels associated with these new projects.