Research

Belle Park Project

SSHRC Insight Grant, A Totem Pole on a Pile of Garbage: Contending with Colonial and Environmental Violence in Kingston, Ontario, in collaboration with PIs, Dorit Naaman, Laura Murray and Erin Sutherland, et al. 

Recording Nature: The Life Geography of William W.H. Gunn

SSHRC Insight Grant, in collaboration with Dr. Matt Rogalsky

This research focuses on the life geography of ecologist, Dr. William W.H. ‘Bill’ Gunn (1913-1984), an international pioneer and key popularizer of ‘nature’ sound recordings. As the creator of high-quality field recordings, including the wildlife soundtracks for CBC's ‘The Nature of Things’ for over twenty years, Gunn recorded soundscapes across Canada as well as locations in the Galapagos Islands, East Africa, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica.

In addition to his founding roles in several nature conservation organizations, he was one of Canada's first and most respected environmental consultants. Gunn's research in ethology and migration was actively applied to public education, management and industry, including the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and the design of Toronto's CN Tower.

This research, which demonstrates the potential of geographical approaches to issues of science, fieldwork and subjectivity, represents the first extensive examination of Gunn´s life and work which shaped fields of ecology, environmental consultancy and sound recording in a formative period for the conservation of Canadian natures.

Digitizing Slide Collections: a Transnational Ecologies Project

This project aims to digitize the slide collections of prominent geographers and historians and make them publically available as primary research material for other researchers and for our own themed on-line exhibits.

In order to provide valuable, accurate and detailed metadata, we will be working with the collection creators to identify and contextualize the slide images. We will also be conducting oral history interviews that will, in the first instance, assist with the provision of metadata and, eventually, be edited for use in the on-line exhibits. 

In Conversation with Professor Brian Osborne: Main Duck Island.

Transnational Ecologies