The following is a list of potential thesis supervisors who have identified themselves as available to oversee students taking the Climate Change Specialization in the completion of a thesis. The thesis needs to be submitted for approval by the coordinator via the Thesis Topic Form.
Program | Advisor | Research Area |
Anthropology | Blair Rutherford | Politics and possibilities of international development, civil society in Africa; rural livelihoods in Africa; anthropology of citizenship, gender, race, and the state; colonialism/post-colonialism/decolonization; migration; public anthropology. |
Danielle Dinovelli-Lang | Politics and possibilities of international development, civil society in Africa; rural livelihoods in Africa; anthropology of citizenship, gender, race, and the state; colonialism/post-colonialism/decolonization; migration; public anthropology. | |
English | Brenda Vellino | Indigenous cultural studies, transitional justice and cultural studies, contemporary poetry studies, and contemporary theatre studies. |
Barbara Leckie | climate change and the humanities, nineteenth-century print culture and narratives of social reform, and social and cultural theory. | |
Geography | Derek Smith | Use, management and conservation of forests, local environmental knowledges, impacts of climate change on natural resource use |
Dipto Sarkar | Biodiversity, climate change and their social impacts | |
Emilie Cameron | Climate justice, climate politics, climate knowledges, Nunavut | |
Jennifer Ridgley | “Climate migration”, the policing and surveillance of climate activists | |
Karen Hébert | Environmental politics, resource industries, and struggles over sustainability in Alaska | |
Pablo Mendez | Sustainable transportation and housing affordability; low-carbon transitions and urban design | |
Jill Wigle | Planning for climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities | |
Derek Mueller | Indicators and impacts of climate change in the cryosphere | |
Elyn Humphreys | Carbon cycle science in tundra and wetland ecosystems | |
Jesse Vermaire | Paleolimnology and paleoecology dealing with Holocene climate change and impacts on aquatic ecosystems | |
Koreen Millard | Remote sensing of changing landscapes, particularly wetlands/peatlands but not exclusively | |
Scott Mitchell | Changing extreme weather regimes and impacts on risks in agricultural production | |
Alexis Shotwell | Impurity and imperfection as a basis for action, environmental justice, racial formation, disability, unspeakable and unspoken knowledge, sexuality, gender, and collective political transformation. | |
Stephan Gruber | Permafrost and climate change, in polar and mountain regions | |
Communications | Chris Russill | problems of disinformation and denial in their relevance to climate action |
Siobhan Angus | the intersections of art history, media studies, and the environmental humanities | |
Economics | Maya Papineau | economics of climate change, energy efficiency policy, renewable energy, sustainable development |
Political Economy | Peter Andree | Canadian and International Environmental Politics |
Sustainable Energy | Graeme Auld | comparative and global environmental politics and policy; international political economy; transnational private governance and private regulation; corporate social responsibility; climate change; natural resource governance |
Vivian Hoffmann | agricultural extension; science, technology and innovation; health | |
Alexandra Mallett | sustainable energy and climate policy; emerging economies / developing countries; low carbon technology cooperation; innovation, science and technology policies | |
James Meadowcroft | Low-carbon transition; environmental policy; sustainable development; energy policy; climate change; comparative environmental politics and policy | |
Lisa Mills | maternal and reproductive health policy in the developing world, particularly Mexico; social policy in Mexico; the political economy of development; theories of development | |
Stephan Schott | natural resource management; air quality control policy; northern development; common pool resources; experimental economics; energy policy and strategies | |
Management | Sujit Sur | Management |
Architecture | Manuel Baez | inter-relationships between design, culture and the evolution of technology and science parallels between Indigenous knowledge and worldviews and the origins of Western science as they related to Climate Change and environmental crises. |
Katie Bonier | historical analysis and futuristic visions that center on the shaping of the built environment around water, technology, infrastructural systems, and competing ideas of health and balance. | |
Sheryl Boyle | immersive materials research and innovative design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) processes, including work in concrete and lime, cellulose, historic pigments and construction systems that participate in a circular economy. | |
Jake Chakasim | community design informed by Architecture, Engineering, and Indigenous Planning Principles. Research focus is on resiliency, which includes social, political, environmental, and economic aspects associated with the internal migration and/or forced displacement of indigenous communities (deemed a type of ‘domestic’ diaspora). | |
Zach Colbert | address architecture’s role in the hydrocarbon world-systems of modernity in search of new paradigms, narratives, and real adaptations for collective and carbon-less approaches to architecture and urbanization. | |
Mariana Esponda | Sustainable Heritage Conservation and adaptive reuse, balancing cultural and natural heritage, integrating environmental construction techniques, social and economic practices. | |
Natalia Escobar Castrillon | relationships between social and environmental injustice and contemporary issues such as climate change, mental health and social isolation, places in conflict, critical heritage studies, spatial and urban segregation, representation of complex identities, and design for protest and cultural resistance, among others. | |
Jerry Hacker | Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Circular Economy / Affordable Housing, Loneliness, Affordable Housing. Considering how the built environment impacts loneliness, isolation, and social interaction. Transforming the notion of affordable housing from a place to sleep into a mindset in which all are entitled to quality shelter. | |
Suzy Harris-Brandts | agency of landscape and ecological urbanism, alongside speculative futures and what has been called ‘more-than human’ agency. interdisciplinary research that brings together concepts from critical urban theory, human geography, international development, landscape architecture, and architectural design. | |
Lisa Moffitt | making visible ways in which buildings and landscapes materially alter, impact, and construct new environments in light of climate breakdown; working with complex material systems at scale by designing, prototyping, and photographing environmental models–mostly of air, but shifting to soil/earth and other regenerative building materials. | |
Susan Ross | relationship between heritage and waste; sustainable heritage conservation; Waste, deconstruction and heritage values; Environmental history/sustainable conservation of wood in modern architecture; Traditional environmental design and appropriate technologies. | |
Ozayr Saloojee | politically contested terrains and infrastructure through the entanglements of architecture, landscape, cultural geographies, and geo-imaginaries. | |
Mario Santana | Historic buildings digitalization, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, climate adaptation of historic buildings | |
Engineering (Aeropsace, Materials, or Mechanical Engineering) | Cynthia Cruickshank | Energy Efficient Buildings |
Ian Beausoliel-Morrison | Energy Efficient Buildings | |
Jean Duquette | Thermal Energy Storage, District Energy Grids | |
Ahmed Abdulla | Alternative Pathways for the Energy Transition | |
Kristen Schell | Alternative Pathways for the Energy Transition | |
Matthew Johnson | Methane Emissions Monitoring | |
Reza Kholghy | Energy and Particle Technology for Hydrogen Generation | |
David MacPhee | Wastewater and Agricultural Aeration, Thermal Energy Storage | |
Computer Engineering | Gabriel Wainer | modeling and simulation with applications to climate change. |
Electrical Engineering | Mohamed Ibnkahla | IoT |
Environmental or Civil Engineering | Elisabeth Gilmore | intersection of technology and policy to tackle climate change |
Jenn Drake | Smart, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities and Environments | |
Liam O’Brien | Building performace and sustainability | |
Elie Azar | Urban Sustainability, Building performance simulation | |
Thomas Walker | Environmental Engineering |