Congratulations to Scott Lougheed on completing the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Studies at Queen's University on December 11, 2017! We would also like to thank and congratulate Scott's supervisor, Dr. Myra Hird and committee members Dr. Warren Mabee, Dr. Graham Whitelaw, Dr. Betsy Donald, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dr. Elaine Power and Dr. Stephen Hinchliffe.
Scott Lougheed’s dissertation used food recalls—the removal from the market of food that violates laws or standards as a lens to understand how efforts to secure the Canadian food system and Canadian consumers more broadly intersect with the limits of human control. His dissertation draws on the related concepts of biopolitics, biosecurity, and risk, as a frame for critically examining the imbroglio that constitutes the simultaneous control of microbial life on the one hand, and the enriching of human life on the other. His dissertation work shows that such efforts to controlling microbial life and securing human life merit critical consideration, as they are inherently a waste-making activities.
Scott is the first PhD graduate from the School of Environmental Studies and is currently a Visiting Scholar in Rural Sociology in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at The Pennsylvania State University. Scott’s work at Penn State concerns ethics and discourses that subtend the emergence of “alternative proteins” such as in vitro meat, insects, and plant-based proteins and their intersection with the current unprecedented demand for protein in consumers’ everyday diets.
Later this year, Scott will begin a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of Toronto with Dr. Virginia Maclaren. Scott’s work at the University of Toronto is focused on waste management issues, specifically the role of the consumer in current Extended Producer Responsibility system in the province of Ontario.
Scott was a fantastic student and ambassador for the School of Environmental Studies and we wish him the best of lunch with his future endeavors. Congratulations Scott!
Click here to visit Scott's personal website.