News

Local governments are a key partner in the future of rural communities throughout Ontario. Over the past 30 years, the realities of local governments have changed dramatically. As part of a national initiative, University of Guelph Professor Ryan Gibson and John Dale (PhD student in Rural Studies) recently published a new report titled, “Do more, with less: The realities of local government in rural Ontario” in The Canadian Geographer.

Ashleigh Weeden, who recently completed her PhD in Rural Studies in SEDRD, has been named Municipal World's 2022 Members' Choice Columnist of the Year for her bi-monthly column "Connecting the Dots." Ashleigh has been writing the column for Municipal World since 2015. Her writing addresses timely and critical issues facing local government leaders as they manage their current realities and plan for the future. 

Congratulations to Maria Margarita Fontecha, a PhD candidate in Rural Studies and an Arrell Scholar, who has been awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. The Vanier scholarship is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and she is supervised by Dr.

Congratulations to Dr.

This past year, Drs Nadia Amoroso and Martin J. Holland, Associate Professors in Landscape Architecture within the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, released a new book publication titled Representing Landscapes: One Hundred Years of Visual Communication. 

Dr. Karen Landman hosted Dr. Rudi van Etteger, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. Dr van Etteger presented a talk this fall to the MLA1 students in their Landscape Resource Analysis course on the Dutch Room for the River program, which is focused on the safety and spatial quality of the Dutch riverine areas, and he also participated in discussion with MLA2 Research Methods students. Dr.

The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development and Ontario Agricultural College will be hosting the international conference of the Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE) in Guelph, April 26–29, 2023. Established in 1984, AIAEE is a leading international professional organization for agricultural and extension educators who share a common goal of strengthening agricultural and extension education programs and institutions worldwide.

Congratulations to Bachelor of Landscape Architecture student, Shayla Spalding who won the graphic design competition for the 2023 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture annual conference.  

Image above:  CELA graphic image created by BLA student, Shayla Spalding.

Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy by Donald G. Reid and published by Routledge, examines the authoritarian challenge to present-day democracy through a framing of social progress theory and the idea of the social contract.

plazaPOPS, a collaborative research initiative that enhances the public realm through publicly accessible pop-up installations within the privately owned parking lots of commercial strip-malls, has received two significant new grants!