The Challenges of Curating Latin American Cinema in the 21st Century

Curatorial studies is a well-established field of research in the visual arts. However, curating and programming are probably among the most understudied areas in film and media scholarship. While I participate in defining the official selection of Latin American movies for the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, I will gather tools to attempt answering the following questions: Which films are prioritized for exhibition and why? How can a film festival contribute to the development of ethnic inclusions?

Community Engagement Processes in Entrepreneurial and Social Innovation

Many of Canada’s former resource towns are in a period of transition. The most successful often adaptively reuse the resources still available within the community: built resources as well as skills and cultural resources. This project develops a framework and toolkit of the creative processes in social innovation so that communities can reimagine themselves into vibrant relocalised networks that will create a more sustainable, healthy and reconnected world.

Chirps for thought

The global meat demand is expected to roughly double by 2050. While the livestock sector monopolizes a lot of land, food and water, edible insects constitute as an interesting alternative to lower environmental stress. Even though almost a quarter of the world population regularly eat insects, their widespread adoption is impeded by the disgust factor and high production costs.

From trees to bluebirds: the communication of conservation on Vancouver Island

The Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) is a non-government organization that endeavours to inform the public of their scientific findings and conservation goals. Social media has been used for conservation outreach, but the role of the public in sharing tweets and posts can have mixed effects. What information are shared by the public can either further share scientific information, maintain false information in the public sphere, or be ignored without any uptake.

Mapping for Change: A Case Study of Enhancing Informational Exchange and Collaboration Through Geoweb Technology

‘Mapping for Change’ is a case study of best practices in the use of Geoweb as a mechanism for enhancing informational exchange and collaboration between homelessness stakeholders including non-profits/charities serving the homeless.

Building Prosperity / Building Communities: exploring the value of landscape level approaches to heritage and diversity

How can cities positively make use of their heritage in ways which support future their prosperity and quality of life? This is the question at the heart of a research collaboration between the City-Region Studies Centre (CRSC), at the University of Alberta, and the Edmonton Heritage Council (EHC). Edmonton is experiencing a period of rapid growth and development, transforming the city into a modern metropolitan centre.

Social Lab on Poverty in South India

Globally, poverty is a continuing problem that is not easily resolved. 650 million people in India live below the poverty line. In the south of India in the rural region around the city of Mysore, half of women are illiterate, and lack equal opportunity of employment. Although research has been done on technological and financial solutions to poverty, a key gap in the research is understanding the social inhibiting patterns (personal and social habits) that limit creative solutions toward change.

Envisioning an International Community: Proletarian Arts in East Asia

This project explores the relation between internationalism and leftist literature in early twentieth century China and East Asia. A study of internationalism amongst leftist movements offers important insights into technologies and strategies for building coalitions across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. I propose that examining workers organizations and their literary and cultural links to internationalism in early twentieth century China and East Asia help us better understand the wider implications of literary practices in modern literatures and societies.

Bitan in China and Japan: their preservation, compilation and publication

For many years, it has been a common practice adopted by educated people among East Asian countries to communicate with those who do not speak their language by writing Chinese characters. Many of these pen conversations, or bitan in Chinese, are preserved. Some of these are later compiled and published.

Cultural Capital and Return Migration to Turkey

This research project studies Turkish university professors who have spent significant periods of time living in the United States or Canada but have decided to move back to Turkey. I want to understand why these professors choose to move back to Turkey after spending so much time in North America, and what factors cause them to leave. This project will take place in Istanbul, Turkey with possible trips to Ankara and other cities to meet my subjects. The research will include interviews with twenty-five professors from various backgrounds.

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