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Item Open Access Assessing Long-Term Ecological Changes in Lake Scugog (Southern Ontario, Canada) from ~1700 to 2019 Using Cladocera (Branchipoda, Crustacea) Subfossil Remains as Paleoecological Indicators(2024-03-16) Jeyarajah, Januja; Korosi, JenniferLake Scugog is a shallow impoundment located in southern Ontario that is encountering several anthropogenic stressors, such as the introduction of invasive species, eutrophication, periodic algal blooms, and climate change. This thesis used a paleolimnological approach to assess the long-term (~200 years) ecological changes in the west and east arms of Lake Scugog using Cladocera (crustacean zooplankton, Class Branchiopoda) remains as bioindicators. Bosmina and C. brevilabris were the dominant cladocerans in Lake Scugog throughout the last several hundred years. Measured Bosmina body sizes were small, indicating high fish planktivory pressure on Bosmina. The changes in subfossil Cladocera and Bosmina in sediments suggest that the stress levels associated with eutrophication, climate change and invasive species have not been large enough to significantly alter predation levels or this part of the zooplankton community in Lake Scugog.Item Open Access Carbon and Mercury Accumulation in Lake Sediments of Rapidly Thawing Discontinuous Permafrost Peatlands (Northwest Territories, Canada)(2024-03-16) Abulu, Rachael Ehimen; Korosi, JenniferThis research uses a paleolimnological approach to address gaps in our understanding of lakes as potential sinks for carbon and mercury released from thawing discontinuous permafrost peatlands. Sediment cores were collected from 14 small lakes in the southern Northwest Territories, and core chronologies and sediment accumulation rates established using 210Pb radioisotopes. Most lakes exhibited increases in mercury concentrations independent of organic carbon. Atomic C/N ratios indicated that the proportion of organic carbon from algal sources has also increased. The low sediment focussing factor (< 1.0) observed in the majority of the lakes suggests that small, hydrologically connected shallow lakes act as flow-through systems, which may promote the downstream transport of sediment (and associated carbon and mercury) through sub-arctic watersheds draining thawing permafrost peatlands, rather than acting primarily as carbon and mercury sinks.Item Open Access Trans imaging of non-normative homes: the critical geographies of higher education- LGBTQ+ student housing in Delhi and Mumbai, India(2024-03-16) Arun-Pina, Chan; Bain, Alison L.“Student housing” rarely discursively figures in the contemporary urban Indian public imagination because of a deeply rooted cis-heteronormative conflation of marriage, housing, and permanence. This dissertation considers what it means for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer (LGBTQ+) postsecondary students to belong in an everyday trans-/homonegative society. Through empirical case studies of on- and off-campus geographies of student housing at North Campus, DU, Delhi and Deonar Campus, TISS, Mumbai, I analyse and visualize the invisibilized lived experiences of Higher Education (HE)-LGBTQ+ students in two of India’s megacities. These two campuses are home to radical student-led gender-based housing activism against the patriarchal and cisnormative codes of student accommodations. Gender, however, cannot be activated in isolation, as it intersects with a range of identity axes such as class, caste, region, religion, and (rarely specified) sexuality. This dissertation is based on two phases of research (August 2020 to April 2021 and June 2022 to October 2022) conducted virtually during the Covid-19 global pandemic. In-depth interactive spatial storytelling with 23 HE-LGBTQ+ students was combined with semi-structured interviews with 12 student housing stakeholders (3 urban planners, 5 brokers, and 4 landowners) and autoethnography. My transdisciplinary training as a geographer-artist-architect was used to develop a “trans imaging” technique to see-through and spatio-visually represent how cis-heteropatriarchy codes normative domestic blueprints in ways that enable queer domicide. I argue that queer-domicidal blueprints exceed the spatial scale of marital family homes shaping student spatialities at university-city edges and student housing and homes in India. This dissertation advocates for unfollowing normative domestic blueprints and learning from HE-LGBTQ+ students’ (un)homings and reimaginings of non-normative home-futures.Item Open Access Invisibilized Providers: The Role of Racialized Diasporas in Refugee Sponsorship(2024-03-16) Yousuf, Biftu; Hyndman, Jennifer M.For more than 40 years, civil society groups have volunteered their personal time, energy, and finances to resettle more than 370,000 refugees through Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program. Much of this sponsorship is done and supported by former refugees themselves, who are defined in this research as racialized diaspora sponsors. The PSR program is a public-private partnership between the federal government and Canadian residents, who have joined together to provide protection to refugees in need. Private sponsorships are commonly arranged by local communities, faith-based organizations, or private citizens who have entered into agreements with the federal government. The existing literature underrepresents the crucial role and work of sponsors who are part of racialized diasporas engaged in refugee sponsorship. This dissertation probes the invisibilized sponsorship role of racialized diasporas made up of former refugees and asylum seekers to Canada. Based on testimony from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with sponsors and key informants triangulated with ‘born digital’ material, the research analyzes the motivations, activities, and contributions of Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Oromo diasporas in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. A ‘study up’ technique is used to examine the complexities of power at multiple sites and scales. It engages with feminist geopolitics/politics of security to develop analyses of refugee protection that go beyond state-centric perspectives. Sponsorship is reframed as a community initiative driven by individuals affected by displacement. The findings reveal that racialized sponsors who were themselves resettled to Canada undertake most of the heavy lifting in sponsorship circles, but their work is largely invisible. The findings also indicate that key issues, such as naming and monitoring, have implications for the equitable distribution of refugee protection spaces across more racialized geographies in sub-Saharan Africa. Empirically, this dissertation fills an important knowledge gap that passively references the participation of racialized diaspora sponsors. As Canada’s refugee protection efforts continue to garner global attention, this research has important implications for policy transfer and programming as it relates to sustainability, scalability, and diversification over the longue durée. Such findings are vital to Canadian public policy goals and practices of social inclusion and cohesion, and more specifically, to the global implications of Canadian policies and practices concerning refugee protection.Item Open Access Uncertainty and Columbian Immigrants' Encounters with the Foreign Credential Assessment System in London, Ontario(2024-03-16) Gonzalez Gomez, Michelle; Preston, ValerieMy research examines the experiences of Colombian immigrants, who have settled in London, Ontario, in negotiating professional qualifications and aspirations in Canada, as well as the subsequent impact to their family unit’s spatial integration and their individual identities. The study specifically assesses how educated Colombian immigrants were able to attain the accreditation necessary for employment in their professions and what were their experiences in doing so? Participants’ journeys demonstrate a gap in cultural education in workplace practice and reveal a need to attend to the relationship between local contexts, professional identities, and workplace ethics to ameliorate the issues in accreditation that plague the Ontarian socio-economy. Participants and their families demonstrate diverse capacities to cope with the demands and adverse effects of accreditation. Participants confront challenges with steadfast determination and tenaciously seize every opportunity available to them. The testimonies of participants are of undeniable value to shape the approach to immigration policy and program development. To construct a comprehensive story of credentialing and capture the diverse narratives of Colombian immigrants, participants partook in either or both the focus group and semi-structured interviews, which proved fruitful methods for the sharing of stories. In the end, I successfully gathered 15 participants for 2 focus groups. My study sought to share knowledge among and with participants with an overarching goal of returning some of the autonomy that has been eroded by participants’ credentialing experiences in Canada. Participants generously shared their experiences.Item Open Access Carbon Pools, Dynamics and Budget of the Bruce Peninsula(2024-03-16) Bao, Kathleen; Bello, Richard L.The northern Bruce Peninsula is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, contains the largest continuous forest in Southern Ontario and is a hotspot for biodiversity. However, there is little research done on the carbon pools, their dynamics and the soil carbon budget. A more comprehensive understanding of the processes regulating the uptake and release of carbon dioxide with the atmosphere is needed. This thesis aims to 1) quantify how much carbon is stored in aboveground biomass, soil, roots, litter, and deadwood pools, 2) understand how the carbon moves between these pools and 3) estimate the annual rate of change of the soil carbon budget. Using a LICOR LI8100, measuring soil respiration at 15-minute intervals over the course of two years, the amount of carbon released by heterotrophic (Rh) and autotrophic (Ra) respiration, was determined for litter and soil separately.Item Open Access Quantifying the Effect of Stressors on Carbon Dioxide Uptake by Vegetation Communities in the Bruce Peninsula(2023-12-08) Achidago, Lord-Emmanuel; Bello, Richard L.Climate change poses a potential threat to the CO2 uptake of terrestrial ecosystems, with uncertain implications for vegetation on the Bruce Peninsula. This UNESCO global biosphere reserve boasts some of the oldest Eastern white cedar trees (Thuja occidentalis). In this study, I investigate the response of Bruce Peninsula vegetation to climate change and vegetation cover variations over the past two decades, focusing on the sequestration capacity of different vegetation types. Utilizing Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Global Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) Sunlight Induced Fluorescence (GOSIF) datasets, I identify nine study sites based on land cover type. By examining trends in climate and vegetation growth and assessing the impact of environmental stresses, I aim to estimate the CO2 sequestration potential of these sites. Seasonal comparisons of GPP data with the area's ERA-5 climate data reveal no significant GPP trend. Notably, MODIS GPP exhibits a more pronounced response to environmental stressors, especially during the spring, compared to GOSIF GPP. Coniferous forests in the Bruce Peninsula emerge as the most effective in absorbing CO2.Item Open Access The Impact of Fire on the Reported Presence of Animals in California Deserts Using Open-Source Data(2023-12-08) Goldgisser, Marina; Lortie, ChristopherChanging fire regimes across southwest North American deserts may impact endangered animal communities endemic to the region. This study examines the impact of fires on the occurrence of endangered animal species (ES) in California desert systems and evaluates ES recovery trends using open-source data—mostly collected through citizen science—retrieved from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Mean annual NDVI was used to evaluate vegetation productivity in fire impacted desert regions. ES occurrence records were fit to generalized linear mixed models and compared pre- and post-fire to evaluate ES response to fire disturbance. ES recovery was evaluated using a incidence-based ChaoSørensen similarity index. Burned regions had higher vegetation productivity than unburned regions in some, but not all, deserts. ES continue to visit burned habitat, even 19 years after a fire. Findings suggest ES resiliency to fire disturbance, likely through habitat-use modification, and support implementing citizen science data in future ecosystem monitoring.Item Open Access Exploring Activist Perspectives on Indigenous-settler Solidarity in Toronto's Food Sovereignty Movement(2023-12-08) Seidman-Wright, Taliya; Rotz, SarahIn Canada, Indigenous and ally scholars have called upon food movements to reimagine approaches to food system change in ways that confront settler colonialism and support Indigenous struggles for land and sovereignty. Engaging with critical Indigenous and food sovereignty scholarship, this project explores how nine settler food activists in Toronto are responding to these calls. Findings suggest that some Toronto food activists are actively working to build solidarity with Indigenous peoples by (un)learning and building relationships. However, few organizations seem to be prioritizing Indigenous initiatives or conversations around settler colonialism in their public media, implying that participants’ efforts may be in the minority among Toronto food organizations. Ultimately, settler food sovereignty movements must do more to reckon with the coloniality of food movement work, relinquish settler claims to define food systems on stolen lands, and push for structural changes towards permanent redistribution of power and land to Indigenous peoples.Item Open Access Constellations of Elsewheres: Queer and Trans* Youth Lives in Suburban Toronto(2023-12-08) Sharp, Benjamin WIley; Bain, Alison L.Loneliness, isolation, and suicide are endemic among queer and transgender youth, especially for those who live in the suburbs, where queer and trans* social infrastructure is scarce. This thesis explores how queer and trans* youth negotiate the cisheteronormative social infrastructure of suburban Toronto, how their everyday practices of dwelling shift the possibilities that this infrastructure affords, and how they build grassroots social infrastructure in Toronto’s suburban elsewheres. To explore these everyday practices, this research employs go-along interviews, participatory photography, and participant observation to sketch a constellation of suburban elsewheres where queer and trans* youth make their lives across the urban region. Finally, this thesis argues that queer and trans* youth build grassroots forms of social infrastructure across the urban-suburban region that enable them to survive and thrive amid the precarious landscapes of Toronto and its suburbs.Item Open Access Disinformation, Exclusion, and its Politics: Canadian Right-Wing Extremist Community within a Digital Landscape(2023-12-08) Costanzo-Vignale, Christian; Gilbert, LietteResearch on right-wing extremism has historically been overwhelmingly focused on the movement’s preoccupations in the United States and Europe. Scholarly literature on Canadian groups and their beliefs has been sparse, with few studies mapping the extent of their activities. Right-wing extremism has captured journalistic attention in recent years as lone-wolf right-wing extremists radicalized on the Internet take up arms against racialized groups they see as anathema to their White supremacist groups’ survival. This research examines right-wing extremist conceptions of out-groups (the ‘Other’) and resulting political demands to contain this imagined threat through a case-study approach of Stormfront Canada. I conducted a thematic analysis of publicly available digital communications exchanged between community members between January 1st and December 31st, 2021. Major themes identified for forum threads were anti-hate initiatives, politics, crime, and health within the COVID-19 context, while for forum replies these were disinformation, offensive speech, and politics. I also quantified the extent of this community’s activity and found that most content shared to the website is posted by less than six active members. This thesis argues that discursive constructions of the Other depend on exclusionary belief systems predicated on support for White hegemony, and that political demands expressed by community members to contain the perceived threat posed by the continued existence of racial out-groups are shaped by an adherence to the Great Replacement superconspiracy.Item Open Access Paper Money, Paper Homes: How the Financialization of Housing Ruined Housing Policy(2023-12-08) Giblon, Melissa Ruth; Kipfer, Stefan AndreasThere is a global housing affordability crisis; the cost of housing has skyrocketed at rates that far outpace real wages. Using a Marxist lens, I look at the dynamics of commodification and financialization in a capitalist land market. My thesis argues that the existence of a profit motive undermines the potential for affordability to be prioritized. Financialization specifically has entrenched and intensified this process of ‘housing-for-investment’ over ‘housing-for-shelter’. My thesis explores modern political solutions to this crisis, performing a comparative analysis of inclusionary zoning by-laws introduced in Toronto and New York City. This analysis dissects how capitalist-oriented housing affordability policies are structurally bound to the same dynamics of profit-over-people; thus, they can never produce affordable housing. Alternatively, I propose a series of non-reformist reforms and radical political approaches to decommodify housing and remove its tender from the private market altogether.Item Open Access A patina of sustainability: Corporate social responsibility and large-scale copper mining in Solwezi, Zambia(2023-12-08) Dvoretskiy, Vladimir; Zalik, AnnaThe Kansanshi mine in Solwezi, Zambia is one of the largest copper-gold mines in Africa by output. Since 2005, the mine has been operated by First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQM), establishing it as the largest Canadian-owned mining asset in Africa. The study aims to understand the influence of FQM's corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies on social and spatial relations within the local community, as well as the environmental and land use impacts of these policies. By examining the decision-making processes behind the CSR interventions, the research sheds light on the extractivist nature of sustainability in large-scale mining operations. Drawing on the corporate imperialism theory, the research suggests that an appearance of stakeholder well-being becomes crucial for the corporate vision of sustainability, turning the pursuit of a social license to operate into a form of extraction itself.Item Open Access Hydrogeomorphology of Lava Rise Pits in The Laki Lava Field, Southeast Iceland(2023-12-08) Keen, Teddy D'Moi; Young, Kathy LynnLava Rise Pits (LRPs) are found within the Laki lava field in Southern Iceland. LRPs naturally occur in pahoehoe lava flows and form when the flow in lava tubes ceases and collapses. The goal of this study was to better understand the hydrogeomorphology of LRPs during the Fall-winter season. Three LRPs were selected, and a range of sensors and measurements monitored thermal and soil moisture (SM) regimes, precipitation, and vegetation and soils surveys. Thermal regimes were primarily impacted by depth, pit openness, ground temperatures (GTs) and air temperature (AT). LRPs more open and exposed to the atmosphere, their near surface above-ground, and GTs mimicked ATs. Precipitation was the most important source of water, with overland flow, and groundwater potentially having a significant role within the LRPs. When GTs were below 0°C, SM levels were low and once GTs rose, snow and ice melt increased SM, linking SM and GT conditions.Item Open Access Tracking the Dispersal of the Endangered Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia cespitosa) by Animal Vectors in Canada(2023-08-04) Huynh, Mandy; Drezner, T.Opuntia cespitosa is an endangered cactus with only one substantive population in Point Pelee National Park (PPNP), Canada. Staff observations at the Park include that many cactus fingerlings (young Opuntia seedlings) appeared in sites frequented by the Eastern Wild Turkeys. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of seed dispersal by wild turkeys and other animals at PPNP, and to identify the primary seed dispersers. We used trail cameras, analyzed wild turkey scats, and examined fingerlings to determine potential seed dispersers from August to October 2020. Migrating birds were the most frequent visitors at cactus sites, followed by rabbits and wild turkeys. We conclude that while wild turkeys consume and disperse cactus seeds, the seeds are not necessarily preferred by them in their diet. This research has important implications for O. cespitosa’s reproduction and potential genetic variability and can be used to inform Park managers about conservation strategies for this species.Item Open Access Worth the Wait and Hype? Gentrification, Anxiety, and the Hipster Geographies of Boutique Ice Cream(2023-08-04) Mark, Bryan James; Bain, Alison L.In the opening decades of the twenty-first century, gentrification continues to upscale city fabrics, including their retail landscapes, beyond recognition. The ongoing expansion of boutique shops and aestheticized commerce displacing longtime stores and ordinary services increasingly signals new geographies of hipster retailing dominating the marketplace of local shopping streets in old inner-city areas. The qualitative analysis of this Master’s thesis traces the socio-spatial articulation of new hipster geographies within retail gentrification processes by offering a cultural critique of an ice-cream boutique located on Ossington Avenue in downtown Toronto, attending to material and digital dynamics of urban production and consumption. At the same time, this Master’s thesis locates the presence of anxiety within contemporary urban change. Shedding light on the phenomenon of 'queuing' outside of the independent ice-cream shop, my research reveals how anxiety underpins popular identity performances on Instagram and animates the experience of actors on the gentrifying street.Item Open Access Enduring Displacement, Enduring Violence: Camps, Closure, and Exile In/After Return (Experiences of Burundian Refugees in Tanzania)(2023-03-28) Weima, Yolanda Melody; Hyndman, Jennifer M.“Return home” was the joint message by the Burundian and Tanzanian presidents in 2017, just two years after hundreds of thousands Burundians were recognized as refugees in neighbouring countries, and as more continued to seek refuge or asylum each month. In Tanzania, where refugees are subject to strict encampment, the vast majority of Burundian refugees had previously been refugees at least once before. Many returned to Tanzania less than three years after their prior return to Burundi, which, as camps were closed, had been framed as a “durable solution” to their displacement. This thesis explores the interrelated dynamics of enduring displacement, encampment, and closure, by drawing on life history research with Burundian refugees in two camps in Tanzania (2017-8), as well as semi-structured interviews with government and humanitarian staff, and ethnographic methods. Empirically, this dissertation contributes to knowledge by tracing the diverse prior trajectories of current Burundian refugees, both within and beyond camp boundaries, challenging there-and-back-again geographical imaginary of refuge management. It highlights an understudied but constitutive aspect of camps—their ultimate closures—by recounting refugees’ memories of the violent closure of Mtabila camp, as well as its fearful afterlives and present-presence. The violence of past camp closure is part of the violence of current encampment due to its evocation as a a disciplinary dispositif to “encourage” return, threatening and anticipating future violence. State and humanitarian practices “close” and harden space for those deemed “undesirable,” through forced encampment, camp closures, and coerced or forced return. In so doing, they produce and prolong displacement, in which varied spatio-temporalities of violence endure. Burundian refugees’ life histories thus trace the ways displacement endures, and is endured.Item Open Access Forced Displacement and Racialization: The Colombian Experience(2023-03-28) Gutierrez Castano, Julian; Basu, RanuThis thesis compares the differential processes of racialization from a Colombian perspective experienced by three groups of displaced migrants in the global North and South. First, internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been forced to move to the Coffee Region in Colombia after leaving their homes in rural regions between 2000 and 2015. Second, Colombian refugees who had similarly sought asylum in Toronto, Canada, and who migrated between 1997 and 2004. Third, Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the Coffee Region in Colombia between 2014 and 2018 due to the deteriorating living conditions and crisis in Venezuela. This research contributes to further theoretical debates on critical geographies of race, postcolonial geography, and urban geography in relation to forced migration. The objective of this research is to question understandings of race and racism, particularly how space and mobility affect the dynamics of racialization through such diverse experiences of forced displacement. The main argument of this research is that the process of forced displacement (as experienced by the Colombian IDPs and Venezuelan migrants to the Coffee Region in Colombia, and for the Colombian refugees to Toronto), results in spatialities of racialization. While escaping violence and economic hardship, forced migrants are subjected to oppressive and exclusionary processes that make them vulnerable to systemic racism and microaggressions. This comparative research uses a combination of qualitative methodologies, including in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, field diary, and policy and document reviews. The research reveals that despite different experiences of internal displacement or transnational migration, spatial processes of racialization present similar dynamics of white supremacy as the dominant racial ideology.Item Open Access From Haiti to Canada: The Migration That Binds(2022-12-14) Therien, Mark Andre James; Hyndman, Jennifer M.This study explores Haitian migration to Canada, the networks tying the two countries together, and the statecraft managing this movement during the decade beginning in 2010. The work investigates transnational spaces as a principal feature of contemporary Haitian migration and contends that Haitian cultural identity and solidarity within these spaces become decisive factors around why many Haitians choose to come to Canada. The concept of a diasporic lakou is highlighted as a transnational space of collectivist solidarity that provides a new and culturally inflected approach to future Haitian migration and migrant transnationalism research. Ideas of slow harm and ontological security are also integrated into this relational theoretical framework. Based on interviews in two Canadian provinces with people of Haitian backgrounds, empirical findings point to the intensifying impoverishment and insecurity generated by natural disasters and political instability in Haiti. Changing government provisions, agreements, and regulations on Haitian migration are also traced to deepen the analysis.Item Open Access Climate Mitigation from a Renter-Centered Perspective: A Case Study of Boulder's SmartRegs Program(2022-12-14) Yoon, Da Young; Wood, Patricia BurkeMy thesis is a renter-centered analysis of the City of Boulder’s SmartRegs rental energy efficiency standards, as a policymaking process that purports to address both climate and housing issues simultaneously, rather than one at the expense of the other. This focus on renters starts from the premise that housing and climate justice should be about the people most impacted. My preliminary findings indicate that, despite nearly all rental units meeting the SmartRegs’ basic energy efficiency requirements, SmartRegs did not result in improved tenant comfort and lower utility bills, as promised by the City of Boulder. I argue that SmartRegs was predominantly a carbon-focused policy to reduce emissions in rental buildings, rather than a renter-centered policy that improved housing quality issues or affordability for renters. I recommend that cities like Toronto learn from Boulder and proactively include renters in policymaking processes and protect them against unaffordable housing and local climate impacts.