News

The first Young Conservation Professionals Alumni Conference took place on February 10-11, 2023 at the Albion Hills Field Center in Caledon, Ontario. The conference was organized by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and attracted a large number of conservation professionals including planners from across Ontario. Associate Professor, Dr. Nicolas Brunet of SEDRD gave a talk on how they may build youth capacity to lead conservation efforts into the future based on his partnered research in Nunavut. 

We are pleased to welcome Cate Mennega as SEDRD’s new Administrative Officer, effective February 1, 2023.

We have an excellent line-up for our Winter 2023 UofG Landscape Architecture Guest Lecture Series.  Individual lecture details will be forthcoming as each date approaches.  Information on these lectures will also be posted on the Upcoming Events section of the SEDRD website.

Our Winter 2023 LA guest speakers include:

Local governments are a key partner in the future of rural communities throughout Ontario. Over the past 30 years, the realities of local governments have changed dramatically. As part of a national initiative, University of Guelph Professor Ryan Gibson and John Dale (PhD student in Rural Studies) recently published a new report titled, “Do more, with less: The realities of local government in rural Ontario” in The Canadian Geographer.

Ashleigh Weeden, who recently completed her PhD in Rural Studies in SEDRD, has been named Municipal World's 2022 Members' Choice Columnist of the Year for her bi-monthly column "Connecting the Dots." Ashleigh has been writing the column for Municipal World since 2015. Her writing addresses timely and critical issues facing local government leaders as they manage their current realities and plan for the future. 

Congratulations to Maria Margarita Fontecha, a PhD candidate in Rural Studies and an Arrell Scholar, who has been awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. The Vanier scholarship is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and she is supervised by Dr.

Congratulations to Dr.

This past year, Drs Nadia Amoroso and Martin J. Holland, Associate Professors in Landscape Architecture within the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, released a new book publication titled Representing Landscapes: One Hundred Years of Visual Communication. 

Dr. Karen Landman hosted Dr. Rudi van Etteger, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. Dr van Etteger presented a talk this fall to the MLA1 students in their Landscape Resource Analysis course on the Dutch Room for the River program, which is focused on the safety and spatial quality of the Dutch riverine areas, and he also participated in discussion with MLA2 Research Methods students. Dr.

The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development and Ontario Agricultural College will be hosting the international conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Guelph, April 26–29, 2023. Established in 1984, AIAEE is a leading international professional organization for agricultural and extension educators who share a common goal of strengthening agricultural and extension education programs and institutions worldwide.