Research Blog
-
5 min read
Hurry Up and Wait: Forest Fires and Disaster Prevention
The year I started working as an Assistant Fire Management Clerk, I was a shy 19-year-old, timidly running radio communications for the Thunder Bay District’s…
-
6 min read
Classroom Connections: Linking Contemporary Youth with Historical Students’ Transnational Experiences of Disasters
On December 17th and 18th 2024, two groups of grade 10 Geography students from Colonel By High School journeyed to Carleton University to tour the…
-
5 min read
The Ethics of Disaster Research
Click through to read the full article on The Brookings Institution As earlier posts have noted, the seeds for the Disaster Lab research project were…
-
4 min read
“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.”
I was knee-deep in my continuous research on the history of disasters when the above quote by American writer Mark Twain came to mind. Coincidentally,…
-
8 min read
Hurricane Hazel’s Best Dressed: Reading between the headlines in the Toronto “Evening Telegram”
Figure 1: The Telegram. 16 October 1954. p.1. Photo citation: Miscellaneous issues of The Evening Telegram, 1942-1959; Fonds 70, Series 655, File 28; Larry Becker…
-
5 min read
Gone to the Dogs: Disasters and the Pet Perspective
Photo credit: Charly Jarrett/Veterinarians Without Borders via AP. Click through to the original article. Pet-owning families will know the important role that animal companions play…
-
4 min read
A Hurricane is Not Just a Hurricane
Photo credit: NOAA/Angela Fritz from The Washington Post, October 6, 2014. Hurricane Hazel took this track in 1954. It made landfall in the Carolinas as…
-
4 min read
Thoughts, Prayers, and Typhoons: Catholicism in the Midst of a Disaster
“To God Be the Glory.” It says at the end credits of a Filipino telenovela playing on tv at a family friend’s living room. Growing…
-
5 min read
What is a Disaster?
At a recent Disaster Lab meeting, the question of “what is a disaster?” came up. We realized that despite researching how other people were…
-
4 min read
Summer (and Wildfire Season) Are Not Yet Over
As September ushers in feelings of a new school year, the once casual “how was your summer?” exchange has taken on a sombre tone. Informally…
-
6 min read
The “Canadian” Wildfires of 2023
Image post from The Weather Channel’s Twitter account on June 6, 2023 On June 5, 2023, as over 200 wildfires raged across the country, the…
-
4 min read
On Classroom Experiences
“A damaged house along Highway 7 in Tweed, Ont., from the aftermath of a strong storm July 24, 2022.” (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press) One of…
