News

What is the potential for new localism to support economic development in rural Canada? Joshua Barrett (RST PhD graduate) and Ryan Gibson explore this topic in a recent peer-reviewed article titled “Revisiting rural economic development: New Localism’s potential in Canadian local government” published in Frontiers in Political Science. As local governments are increasingly asked to take on roles beyond basic services, many rural municipalities are struggling to keep up.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Canadians packed up city life and moved to rural communities. But what did that sudden shift really mean on the ground? A new article in Plan Canada, “Reflecting on the Urban Exodus: Rural Planning for City Expats,” explores how rural municipalities across Ontario experienced — and responded to — this change.

Dr. Ryan Gibson has been named the new Director of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD), effective January 1, 2026.

Dr. Mahatab Uddin, a postdoctoral scholar in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph, participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.  Dr. Uddin served as a Lead Author for Working Group III of the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

Formal agricultural research is often conducted by professional researchers, however, recently there has been an increase in farmer-led initiatives such as the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario’s (EFAO) Farmer-Led Research Program (FLRP). The Connecting the Dots initiative is excited to share a research summary about the impacts of the FLRP – Farmer Knowledge as Formal Knowledge: A Case Study of Farmer-Led Research in Ontario, Canada. The summary highlights the value of the EFAO’s FLRP and how it has been beneficial for ecological farmers in Ontario.

Kamshajini Raveenthiran, a current doctoral student and a graduate from the Capacity Development and Extension program in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, shared a thoughtful and inspiring reflection on her participation in the first international conference of the Canadian Agri-food, & Rural Extension, Advisory and Education (CAREE) conference held at the University of Guelph during October 29- 31, 2025.

A newly published chapter in Critical Futures: Community-Engaged Research in a Time of Social Transformation (University of Toronto Press) invites readers to rethink what it means to live, work, and thrive in rural places today.

October 20-26, 2025, was International Open Access Week – a global event dedicated to openness in scholarship and research. This year’s theme, “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, invited all of us to reflect on who controls the production and sharing of knowledge—and how we might open it up for the wider public good.