Two professors in the Department of Human Geography have partnered with Malvern Action for Neighbourhood Change to develop an urban farm in Rouge Park. Working on the farm gives students first-hand experience with the issues of food security faced by new immigrants and others with low incomes. 'They learn more about the political economy of food provisioning in relation to class, income and city structure,' says Prof. Kenneth MacDonald. 'They gain insight into the dynamics of community formation.’
Ju Hui Judy Han, a professor of human geography who is originally from South Korea, asks her students to think about 'travel' broadly – not only as holidays, but also experiences of displacement and migration, then write essays about personal travel using the critical geographical lens they develop in her course.
'Many of them vividly remember their first trip as migrants to Canada', she says. 'Many of them also write emotionally charged and conflicted accounts' of their first trips back to where they or their parents grew up, she adds. Their stories are shared online in On the Move, an undergraduate journal of creative geography. These 'critical reflections on personal and first-hand experiences can open all our eyes to the intimacy of the global, and cultivate curiosity and mutual understanding', says Han.
Read the UofT Magazine article.
Photo credit: Ken Jones