The Department of Geography and Environment welcomes participants to the 2021 Canadian Association of Geographers – Ontario Division conference on November 12 and 13, 2021. CAGONT 2021 welcomes Geographers from all areas of the discipline and individuals at all career stages. Please note that this year all activities will be hosted virtually and participation is free.
Conference Welcome
Welcome to CAGONT 2021. After a one year hiatus, CAGONT resumes this year, albeit in a virtual format. While virtual meetings cannot take the place of a full face-to-face meeting, we are pleased to provide a meeting wherein all CAGONT members have equal access to the conference and we avoid the travel impacts on our climate. Your submissions have provided 17 conference sessions that span a wide range of topics. We also feature three special panel sessions as plenary sessions that highlight important current challenges in Geography, an R workshop and a Geography - themed trivia night. Enjoy the conference!
Land Acknowledgement
CAGONT 2021 is held virtually but hosted by Western University. We are located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Chonnonton Nations, on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum.
Geographers perhaps more than other disciplines have been culpable and complicit in settler colonialism, Indigenous dispossession, and Western ways of knowing in their study of the environment. We encourage conference participants to reflect on the territory in which you live and to respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples endure in Canada and to the impacts of settler colonialism on the environment and its unjust impacts.
As part of CAGONT 2021 we feature a special panel session, open to all, on Unsettling Geography: Opportunities and Challenges for Engagement in Indigenization. We hope this session will help participants consider their responsibility in dismantling settler-colonialism and in reflecting on actions that they may take at their institutions to help in achieving the goals of the TRC and reconciling our relationship to Indigenous peoples and to the Environment.
Conference Overview Timetable
Sessions Schedule
Conference Program
Special Sessions
Climate Change, Sustainable Livelihoods and Health
Date/Time: Friday, Nov 12, 2021 – 1-2 pm Eastern Time
Panelists: Dan Scott, Geography and Environmental Management, U of Waterloo; Danielle Way, Biology, Western; Mohammad Reza Najafi, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Western; Francisco Olea Popelka, One Health / Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western; Gordon McBean, Geography and Environment Western
Chair: Isaac Luginaah, Western University
Description: Climate change is a leading issue of our time. As Geographers, we recognize the broad biophysical and social science aspects that are a necessary part of climate change research. In this panel session, researchers from a range of disciplines examine multidisciplinary climate change research and research needs arising out of the just completing COP26. The panel will also weigh in on actions Ontario Universities, students and faculty should be doing to address climate change
Unsettling Geography: Opportunities and challenges for engagement in Indigenization
Date/Time: Friday, Nov 12, 2021 – 4-5 pm Eastern Time
Panelists: Heather Castleden, University of Victoria; Isaac White, Queen’s University; Diana Lewis, Western University
Chair: Chantelle Richmond, Western University
Description: In the post-TRC era, the discipline of Geography has begun to engage more earnestly in processes of indigenization, yet these engagements are not without their challenges. This panel draws from research with Dept Chairs of Geography from across Canada, and the lived experiences of Indigenous faculty and students to offer insight into the various opportunities and tensions associated with engaging in processes of Indigenization in geographic research and teaching.
COVID and Geographies of Academic Work
Date/Time: Saturday, Nov 13, 2021 – 4-5 pm Eastern Time
Panelists: Wayne Forsythe, Ryerson; Vivian Kong, Western University; Ben Klar, Western University; Ebenezer Narh, Western University
Chair: Michael Buzzelli, Western University
Description: How will Geography and academic work generally evolve as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is teaching changed forever? Is remote research viable? Some might say the pandemic forced us to finally critically examine what we do and how we do it. Is this ‘rethink’ for the better or could we lose the strengths and positives of our work? Panelists will share their views and experiences on what this all means for the future of Geography and the academic enterprise.”
Geography Trivia Night - Friday, November 12
We may not all be physically gathered on Western’s campus for CAGONT 2021, but we can still participate in a Western graduate student tradition virtually! Join us for some friendly competition and an evening of geography-themed trivia on Discord and Twitch. To play, open the Twitch livestream where the trivia questions will be announced by clicking here. Then, login (or create a free account) on the trivia Discord by clicking here. On Discord, select a team to play on (feel free to make some new friends). If you are new to Discord, there will be further instructions available on the site to assist you.
Information for Presenters
Delivery Mode - Oral
All oral and short thesis proposal presentations will be delivered on Zoom within the PheedLoop platform. Presenters will share their presentation from their own computers. Conference participants will have the opportunity to upload professional information (e.g., websites, social network links, etc.) to PheedLoop which will be available to other conference participants. Check your email for instructions on how to access the conference PheedLoop platform: the email will come from “Canadian Association of Geographers - Ontario Division no-reply@pheedloop.com
Delivery Mode - Poster
Poster Q&A sessions will be held on Zoom within PheedLoop. All posters will be available to view in a virtual ‘poster hall’ on the PheedLoop platform.
Presentation Lengths
Oral presentations: maximum of 15 minutes in length, including a question-and-answer period. Short thesis proposal presentations: maximum of 9 minutes with an additional 2 minutes for questions.
Poster presenters: will have access to a Zoom room during the poster session (9:30-11:00 am Eastern Time on Saturday November 13) to host discussions with poster viewers
Creating a User Profile
On November 10, you will receive an email from “CAGONT 2021 Annual Conference” <no-reply@pheedloop.com> inviting you to create a user profile for the virtual conference site.
If you are having any issues please contact us at cagont2021@uwo.ca
