News

The COVID19 global pandemic created great uncertainty for employment across Canada and internationally. News reports have noted job losses by different sectors, the unequal distribution of the impacts, and the gradual re-opening of some sectors. Victoria Agyepong (RPD student), Ryan Gibson, and Ray Bollman recently published a report called “Rural Employment and Workforce Development: Impacts and Opportunities“.

2020 Latornell Symposium Student Day

Rural communities have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Ryan Gibson (Libro Professor of Regional Economic Development) and Lissel Hernandez-Gongora (Postdoctoral Fellow) participated in the Rural Rebound panel discussion organized by the Rural Ontario Institute on September 24, 2020.

Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Candidate in Rural Studies) recently published commentary in The Conversation exploring the way the pandemic is changing where people are choosing to live and work. The article discusses the critical role of engaging rural perspectives when discussing the potential of people moving out of cities and into the countryside.

Rural Studies PhD candidate Ashleigh Weeden recently co-authored an article for The Conversation with Maggie J Whitten Henry and Dr. Laurie Brinklow (both from the University of PEI) on the popularity of television shows like Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny and why they represent ‘love letters’ to rural Canada.

Ontario needs to “build back better with improved broadband”, states SEDRD Professor Helen Hambly. We are beyond the realization that broadband is an essential infrastructure that connects everyone to the Internet and a range of higher-speed online services and applications essential for daily life, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rural residents from across Canada have been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, their unique environments often result in different experiences than people from urban centres. This goal of this study is to provide residents from Huron and Perth Counties the opportunity to have their voice heard and explain how the pandemic has impacted their lives. This individual-level survey is asking about residents' life before, during, and after COVID-19 to provide critical data to inform policy development in rural communities.

Nadia Amoroso, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development is the recipient of one of nine projects receiving UofG funding to explore notions of "Creating in a Time of Coronavirus"

Working with researchers at the Rural Policy Centre at Scotland’s Rural College and the James Hutton Institute, PhD candidate Ashleigh Weeden contributed to a recently released report detailing successful Scottish and international policy interventions to support repopulation efforts in rural, remote, and island communities. Ashleigh provided Canadian case study examples to the report, which was developed to support research that seeks to support rural resilience, funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural & Environmental Science & Analytical Services department.

Niva’s hometown is Kathmandu, Nepal. Niva completed an MBA in Finance and Operations from Symbiosis International University, India. Niva is now completing a Master’s degree at the University of Guelph in Rural Planning & Development.