News

Farmland preservation is critical to the future of rural Ontario. The Connecting the Dots initiative is excited to share the first Rural Research Summary—Farmland Preservation and Urban Expansion in Ontario. This summary sheds light on the challenges and strategies associated with balancing farmland preservation amidst growing urban development pressures, providing implications and practical recommendations for policymakers, planners, and community stakeholders.

A team of University of Guelph and Toronto Metropolitan University students recently won the C40 Reinventing Cities competition for Toronto.

Congratulations to Ryan De Jong, a Master of Landscape Architecture graduate (MLA 2024) who was awarded an American Society of Landscape Architects Student Honor Award in the research category based on his thesis work entitled "Leveraging the Potential of Spontaneous Pavement Vegetation."

Four members of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development shared rural research at the recent 74^th annual Canadian Association of Geographers national conference in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. With a conference theme of Edges, students and faculty contributed research on rural health, rural economic development, northern veterinary service provision, and rural workforce development. Presentations shared at the conference included: 

Congratulations to Josh Barrett for successfully defending his PhD dissertation titled “A New Localism for Newfoundland and Labrador? An Exploratory Study of Rural Local Government Entrepreneurialism”. Josh's dissertation focuses on understanding how rural local governments can facilitate economic development in their communities in light of limited capacity and resources to do so.

Dr. Donald G.

Students and faculty of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development participated and led discussions at several international conferences in July, including the International Farming System Association in  (Italy), the Canadian Communication Association (Montreal), and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (Christchurch).

Dr. Ataharul Chowdhury, in Capacity Development and Extension, received the 2024 Early Career Research Award for his work, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence, knowledge mobilization, and addressing agri-food/climate misinformation. The award has been established by the Livestock Research Innovation Corporation to recognize the research excellence of early career researchers with support from the Grand River Agricultural Society, Western Fair Association, Ontario Agricultural College, and the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.

We are excited to share a new knowledge translation and transfer initiative has been funded titled "Pathways to Practice: Bridging Knowledge, Practitioners, and Students." The new initiative will build bridges between graduate students, rural economic development officers, and rural community leaders to connect knowledge, ideas, and networks. The project focuses on creating an in-person forum for facilitating these connections, creating a series of new knowledge outputs, and training/mentorship.