Kristy Strauss

Sowing seeds of discovery: U of T postdoc makes waves in plant metabolism research

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:29:58 +0000

Sowing seeds of discovery: U of T postdoc makes waves in plant metabolism research

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 12/23/2024 - 10:29

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Sonia Evans completed her PhD at U of T Mississauga and will continue her research as a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at U of T Scarborough (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Our Community

Department of Biological Sciences

Department of Biology

Graduate Students

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

Sonia Evans's research is opening the door to novel strategies for engineering crops that are more productive and resilient

Sonia Evans has published in high-profile scientific journals, won several awards and completed a PhD from the University of Toronto, but she traces her achievements to someone who had no formal education whatsoever: her grandmother.

A believer in the healing power of plants, Evans’s grandmother hailed from a southern Nigerian village, and regularly crafted plant-based traditional medicines for ailments ranging from infertility to skin conditions.

“She knew the type of plants to go to, and made different concoctions for us,” says Evans, who defended her PhD in U of T Mississauga's department of cell and systems biology in November and is poised to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow at U of T Scarborough. “She never knew the names of the plants, but she knew the types of plants to put together to get the result she was expecting.”

Evans, who was born and raised in Nigeria, completed undergraduate studies in plant science in her home country before earning a master's degree in plant biology in Israel. With a growing interest in plant metabolism, she decided to pursue a PhD at U of T Mississauga under the supervision of Michael Phillips, an associate professor in the department of biology.

“[Phillips] was really involved in plant metabolism… and really trying to understand how plants make chemicals that are important not just for their growth, development and for photosynthesis, but also for us,” Evans says. “These are chemicals that we use as drugs, flavours, fragrances, cosmetics and biofuels. I was really interested in that part of the research.”

Since joining the Phillips lab, Evans has focused on how plants control carbon supply towards the production of isoprenoids – high-value compounds that are critical to plant growth, defense and crop productivity and also have a range of industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Her research has had a huge impact on the field. In 2024 alone, Evans published two papers in the prestigious Nature journals, as first author.

The most recent paper, published in Nature Plants in October, sheds light on a decades-old mystery: the origins of pyruvate, a vital precursor for production of isoprenoids, amino acids and fatty acids in chloroplasts, which are responsible for plant photosynthesis. The research revealed that Rubisco, a critical enzyme that’s responsible for fixing carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, also plays a secondary role in supplying pyruvate.

This discovery not only redefines how scientists understand plant metabolism, but also solves a long-standing paradox of the origin of pyruvate, with Evans’s findings providing a critical link between photosynthesis and the production of isoprenoids. By uncovering how plants channel carbon toward these valuable compounds, her research opens the door to innovative biotechnological strategies for engineering crops with enhanced productivity and resilience.

The previous paper, published in Nature Communications in February, laid the groundwork for how a key metabolic pathway could be engineered in plants for synthetic biology applications.

All the more impressive: Evans managed these accomplishments while carrying out her responsibilities as mother to a young child – which she credits to a strong support system of family, her spouse, friends and peers. “It’s been a learning curve… but I have tried to take everything one step at a time, and check myself every day,” she says.

Evans’s scholarly excellence resulted in her earning the Roberta Bondar Graduate Student Excellence Award last fall. She was also named a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow, and will carry out her postdoctoral research in the lab of Eliana Gonzales-Vigil, assistant professor in U of T Scarborough's department of biological sciences.

Reflecting on her decision to come to U of T, Evans reveals she doubted her chances of being granted admission to Canada’s top-ranked university. “I was like, ‘Oh my God – who am I to be at the University of Toronto?’” she says. “But I wanted to be at a very good university, and I had to keep trying to aim higher and higher for myself.”

U of T researcher tracks 1,000 years of sea ice

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 17:18:44 +0000

U of T researcher tracks 1,000 years of sea ice

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 10/15/2024 - 13:18

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Minoli Dias, a PhD student at U of T Mississauga, examines coralline algae, which live for approximately 1,500 years and grow in annual layers, to construct a record of changes in sea ice cover over time (photo by Natasha Leclerc)

Topic

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Minoli Dias says the baseline data she and her fellow researchers are constructing could "inform model projections that predict what future conditions will look like”

Minoli Dias’s interest in sea ice began in an unlikely place: polar bear poop.

She was studying microplastics in polar bear feces and intestinal tracts as part of a research project during her undergraduate years at Queen’s University.

“It was a smelly job, but it was really interesting,” says Dias, who is now a PhD student in the department of Earth sciences at U of T Mississauga.

Her early work revealed some troubling trends: for instance, declining sea ice levels meant that certain species of polar bears were being driven inland – with garbage and landfills increasingly serving as their food sources. At the same time, members of northern communities, particularly the Inuit, had noted in their own experiences, observations and research that declining sea ice levels had impacted access to essential needs – such as transportation, food security through hunting, and other culturally important activities.

It wasn't long before Dias decided she wanted to pursue sea ice research – and ultimately chose to study at U of T Mississauga after speaking with Jochen Halfar, a paleoclimate and paleontology professor and researcher in U of T Mississauga’s Climate Geology Research Group. “UTM gave him a wonderful lab, and we have incredible facilities. But his research and his passion for the work was what really drew me,” she says.

Now part of Halfar’s research group studying changes in sea ice cover in northern Labrador, Dias and her co-researchers are developing sea-ice cover records for the past 1,000 years off the coast of Nunatsiavut and are examining coralline algae as part of their research.

Minoli Dias's view from the research vessel off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador (photo by Minoli Dias)

Dias says that coralline algae live for approximately 1,500 years and they grow in annual layers (like tree rings). The growth, she explains, is dependent on light. When the algae have more light, meaning there’s less sea ice in the water, they grow a lot thicker. When they have less light, meaning there’s more sea ice cover, the layers grow thinner. By examining these variations and growth over time along with chemical tracers, the research team can essentially watch the sea ice cover change.

Dias conducted field work in the community of Agvituk (Hopedale), N.L. this past summer. The lab also explored multiple sites in Greenland, Norway, Nunavut and the Labrador coast.

“If we can create a network of these types of ocean reconstructions, we’ll be able to have this baseline data going back several centuries that can then hopefully inform model projections that predict what future conditions will look like,” she says.

Since joining the lab, Dias says she has had some incredible experiences – including a recent opportunity to work with members of the Hopedale community.

“We’re not the experts. We don’t live there. It’s the people who live along the coast – and actually live the change and see the change – who are the experts,” she says. “When you speak to community members, they have a clear understanding of how changes occurred over time, and what is the importance of sea ice to these ecosystems.”

Once she completes her PhD, Dias hopes to continue pursuing climate research by either working directly with impacted communities or working to address the effects of pollution or climate change.

Dias says she feels inspired by the many women scientists who came before her, including her female professors who have served as role models in what traditionally has been a male-dominated field.

“They paved the way for us to be able to do the work that we do, and to do it in relative comfort,” she says. “Having these women to look up to is what makes it possible for me to do the type of work that I do, and I hope I can make a similar contribution and pay it forward to the women that are coming after me.”

Get That Hope: Alumna and former U of T Mississauga instructor premières latest work at Stratford Festival

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:27:55 +0000

Get That Hope: Alumna and former U of T Mississauga instructor premières latest work at Stratford Festival

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/29/2024 - 11:27

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Andrea Scott says she wrote her latest play, Get That Hope, after seeing Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, asking herself, “Why don’t we have plays like this about Black Canadian families?” (photo by Helen Tansey)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Theatre

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Andrea Scott's play tells the story of a Toronto family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration

Andrea Scott has never forgotten the moment when her dreams of becoming a writer were quashed.

It was during a Grade 9 English class.

“I remember proclaiming something I felt was very literary and my English teacher shot me down so quickly,” says the University of Toronto Mississauga alumna and former instructor at U of T Mississauga. “It killed my desire to be a writer and I’ve never forgotten her.”

The death of Scott’s writing ambitions would prove to be premature. She just wrapped up a contract writing for Disney and recently her play Get That Hope, which tells the story of a family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration, made its debut at the Stratford Festival.

Scott’s journey to becoming an award-winning playwright and screenwriter began when she temporarily gave up on writing in high school, and turned her attention to the stage. She received an honours bachelor of arts degree in theatre and drama studies through U of T Mississauga’s joint program with Sheridan College, with a minor in English.

She later earned a master’s degree in drama through U of T’s School of Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Arts & Science. 

She recalls being “an annoying theatre kid” at U of T Mississauga, but says she had many professors who encouraged her and gave her a well-rounded theatre education.

“It is good to have a three-dimensional education regarding the ‘why’ of certain stories and the historical context,” Scott says. “I have a lot of those books still on my shelf because they inform how I write.”

Following graduation, she pursued an acting career in Toronto. As she auditioned for TV shows, she noticed a theme: Black characters often supported the protagonist – who was usually white – and didn’t have robust stories of their own.

When she auditioned for the role of a grieving mother who had lost her son to gun violence, she turned her attention back to writing.

“I was like, ‘Yeah ... I could write better than this,’” Scott says.

She wrote her first play, Damaged, a one-woman show that debuted at b current’s rock.paper.sistahz festival. Her second play, Eating Pomegranates Naked, was included in the SummerWorks Performance Festival.

It was a turning point for Scott.

“There were people lining up to see the play who did not know me and had never heard of me, and that felt very validating,” she says, adding that the play also earned her the RBC Arts Professional Award. “That was the moment where I realized, ‘Maybe I could do this.’”

Scott continued to achieve success with her plays, including Better Angels: A Parable, Don't Talk to Me Like I'm Your Wife (produced by her production company, Call Me Scotty Productions) and the award-winning Controlled Damage. She also taught playwriting to undergraduate students in U of T Mississauga’s department of English and drama.

In 2020, Scott worked in the writers’ room on the CBC/BET production The Porter. Following that, she worked on Murdoch Mysteries for three seasons and wrote four episodes.

“Murdoch Mysteries was a huge achievement for me,” Scott says. “I never assumed that I would ever get a job quite like that.”

Scott recently wrote for the upcoming Disney series High Potential, which stars Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) with Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas as showrunner.

“The first time that I got to walk into the Disney lot, it just did not seem real,” she says. “It was a dream come true.”

On Aug. 10, Scott made her Stratford debut with the world première of Get That Hope. She says she was inspired to write the play after seeing Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

“All I kept thinking was, ‘Why don’t we have plays like this about Black Canadian families?’” she says.

Scott is working on a new play called Truthfully Jackie about Jackie Robinson’s time playing for the Montreal Royals in 1946.

While she has seen success throughout her career, Scott says she has also faced challenges – including not being taken seriously enough.

“I’m a woman, I’m a Black woman, and I’m really tiny – like five feet tall. But I have this voice, and I try to use it to make sure people take me seriously,” she says, adding that her advice for budding writers is to not take criticism to heart.

“Reacting emotionally to something that was maybe constructive criticism won’t help you,” Scott says. “Also, write and write and write – and don’t close off any kind of source material that you can be inspired by. You never know where it might come from.”

Get That Hope runs until Sept. 28 in the Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre.

Kidney therapy startup Atorvia named inaugural recipient of U of T Mississauga's Blue Ticket program

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 16:23:12 +0000

Kidney therapy startup Atorvia named inaugural recipient of U of T Mississauga's Blue Ticket program

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 04/19/2024 - 12:23

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Biotech company Atorvia was recently named the first-ever winner of the SpinUp Blue Ticket program, sponsored by Merck (photo by Chokniti Khongchum via Pexels)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Our Community

U of T Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Startups

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

Atorvia is developing novel treatments that target the molecular causes underlying kidney damage

Acute kidney injury can be devastating for patients, resulting in chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease, stroke and heart attack.

There’s currently no effective treatment for the condition, which the World Health Organization estimates affects some 78 million people each year. The only option is supportive care like dialysis which requires patients to rearrange their lives around lengthy hospital treatment sessions.

Atorvia is looking to change that. A woman-led biotech startup headquartered in the Ottawa area, Atorvia is developing novel treatments that target the molecular causes underlying kidney damage.

The company was recently named the inaugural winner of the Blue Ticket competition at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s SpinUp wet lab incubator. Sponsored by pharmaceutical company Merck, the Blue Ticket program aims to empower the next generation of global health innovators.

As prize winner, Atorvia receives a free one-year membership to SpinUp, an up-front cash prize and mentorship from scientific and business leaders at Merck.

“This opportunity is game-changing for us,” said Jane Lapon, founder of Atorvia. “It will help us to accelerate faster.”

Among Atorvia’s key innovations is a treatment that addresses acute kidney injury that occurs as a complication of cardiac surgery. The company is developing medicine that can be administered before a patient undergoes cardiac surgery, in order to help prevent kidney failure.

While preliminary experiments have been carried out, the company needed dedicated space and equipment to conduct further lab work – something that’s hard to come by for biotech startups with limited financial resources. “The fact that SpinUp was there with availability, and was subsidized, was fantastic,” Lapon said.

“Because we’re getting the mentoring with Merck as well, it means that we can develop this medicine and hopefully get it to patients sooner. We’ve got this expertise to help us along the way.”

Lapon said startups often face a “very lonely journey,” but that the mentorship and financial resources provided by Merck, as well as SpinUp’s vast network, will provide much-needed support. “One of the advantages of SpinUp is that we’ve got access to University of Toronto researchers and the potential to then partner with some of the researchers, as well as students and co-op students,” Lapon said. “With the resources we have, there is a very high probability that we would have this ready to go into trials during our first year at SpinUp.”

She said team is currently gearing up to re-run previous experiments and conduct new ones in order to validate the medicine and prepare for filing with health authorities.

Kent Moore, vice-principal, research at U of T Mississauga, said he looks forward to tracking Atorvia's progress. “Strong partners like Merck enable us to enhance the support SpinUp offers to propel promising early-stage startups,” said Moore. “We're delighted to be working with Merck to help drive Atorvia’s innovative approaches forward through Merck’s mentorship support and SpinUp’s wet lab capabilities and programming.”

U of T primatologist finds monkeys alter social behaviour to adapt to deforestation effects

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:01:35 +0000

U of T primatologist finds monkeys alter social behaviour to adapt to deforestation effects

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 03/11/2024 - 16:01

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White-faced capuchin monkeys altered their behaviour in forest edge areas to reduce the chances of attracting predator attention, according to research by U of T Mississauga primatologist Laura Bolt and colleagues (photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Breaking Research

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

The researchers studied the social behaviour of three species of monkeys in northeast Costa Rica between 2017 and 2023

Monkeys in the Costa Rican jungle modify their social behaviours to adapt to the environmental impacts of deforestation, according to research by University of Toronto Mississauga primatologist Laura Bolt and colleagues.

The researchers found that Central American spider monkeys and white-faced capuchin monkeys displayed different social behaviours along the edges of forests compared to interior forest areas.

“One trend we're seeing with primates worldwide is that when their forests are cut down, they're either able to adapt in some way, or their population declines,” says Bolt, an adjunct professor in U of T Mississauga’s department of anthropology.

The findings are detailed in a new study published in the American Journal of Primatology.

Adjunct Professor Laura Bolt (supplied image)

Between 2017 and 2023, Bolt and collaborators, who included Professor Amy Schreier at Regis University, studied the social behaviour of monkeys at La Suerte Biological Research Station (LSBRS), located in northeastern Costa Rica and operated by the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy.

The site is an anthropogenically altered tropical rainforest, meaning part of it has been changed by humans. It includes human-altered forest edge areas that are close to clear-cut sites such as cattle pasture or agricultural fields. The site also contains undisturbed interior forest areas.

The team discovered that spider monkeys engaged less in social behaviours overall when living along the forest edge — likely because they had to conserve their energy.

“Spider monkeys are adapted to be in the highest parts of the canopy all the time when they move. They also prefer to eat specifically lipid-rich fruit like figs, which tend to come from very tall and mature trees,” says Bolt. “In forest edges, trees tend to be a lot smaller. That means spider monkeys can’t find what they need in terms of food, and they don’t have sufficiently tall trees to be able to travel quite as easily. So, they try to use less energy in general when they’re in forest edges.”

Spider monkeys tend to conserve energy when living along the forest edge, the researchers found (photo by Kike Calvo/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The researchers also found that white-faced capuchin monkeys, which are quite small and vulnerable to predators, engaged in behaviour that wouldn’t draw attention to themselves. For example, these primates vocalized and fought less often while living along the forest edge.

“If they’re in an area with smaller trees where it’s easier for predators to see them, they’re especially vulnerable,” Bolt says. “It makes sense that the capuchins would try to avoid getting eaten, essentially.”

Howler monkeys, however, didn’t appear to change their social behaviour along the forest edge — which Bolt says was a somewhat surprising finding.

In previous research, she and her colleagues found that howler monkeys change how much they eat and travel while living in different forest areas. But past research has also shown that howler monkeys aren’t as adaptable overall when living in different environments.

“This could be a concern long-term for howler monkeys. They might be only capable of living one way and then they persist until suddenly, they die out because they’re not able to cope,” Bolt explains.

The study of primates’ social behaviour builds on Bolt’s previous work related to how habitat destruction impacts species on the verge of extinction – for example, ring-tailed lemurs in Madagascar.

“Studying social behaviour is such a good way of understanding their quality of life, and whether they’re happy,” she says. “Understanding how species behave is a way of better understanding them, and better understanding how to conserve them.”

Primatology in Costa Rica is at a pivotal juncture, says Bolt, who serves on the board of directors at the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy.

“We wanted to survey them before they’re on the edge of extinction, as a way of maybe informing conservation plans to preserve some of their landscapes.”

This study was co-authored by former students from around the world who gained experience at the LSBRS field school and returned to continue their research. The primate field school is open to U of T Mississauga undergraduate students as a course credit.

U of T prof makes disability and accessibility research his life's work

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 20:45:34 +0000

U of T prof makes disability and accessibility research his life's work

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 02/09/2024 - 15:45

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Ron Buliung, a professor in U of T Mississauga’s department of geography, geomatics and environment, says his research aims to “just make things work” for people with disabilities and their families (photo by Romi Levine)

Topic

Subheadline

Ron Buliung dedicated his professional life to studying disability – and the experiences of people with disabilities – after his daughter was born with a genetic neuromuscular disease

When Ron Buliung’s youngest daughter was born, it changed his life both as a parent and as a researcher.

She was born with spinal muscular atrophy type 2, a genetic neuromuscular disease that causes progressive muscle weakness and requires her to use a wheelchair.

Since then, Buliung, a professor of geography, geomatics and environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga, has made disability and accessibility research his life’s work.

“It took me a while to process what was happening in my family,” he says. “I then decided I wanted to dedicate my professional life to disability study and the experiences of disabled persons in cities. Since I made that commitment, I haven’t really looked back.”

Over the years, Buliung has delved into disability and accessibility issues. One of his projects focused on food insecurity for people living with disabilities. He found that people with disabilities face both physical and economic barriers to accessing food – putting them at greater risk of food insecurity.

“That research was very timely, given the pandemic and subsequent rise in food prices,” says Buliung, who also teaches at the St. George campus. “The problems we identified in that work have been exacerbated by current conditions.”

Much of his research is motivated by his experiences as a father, as outlined in a recent article for the academic journal Disability and Society. For example, when his daughter started school, he felt frustrated as he watched her face physical barriers to school transportation – an experience shared by many other parents and caregivers of children with disabilities.

In a research project, he and graduate students found that young learners with disabilities face excess travel time to school, and early departure times at the end of the day, which can result in unacceptable levels of missed classroom time and peer interaction. 

“We questioned the ways in which transportation can be both an enabler and barrier to access to education,” Buliung explains.

He also dug into disability and pedestrian injury research, finding that people with disabilities have a significantly higher risk of pedestrian collisions, injuries and fatalities. He wanted to study this issue after walking in Toronto’s The Junction neighbourhood with his daughter and noticing the hazards she faced as a pedestrian.

“I noticed her position and height, relative to parked cars, and the pedestrian countdown signal buttons,” he says. “Her visibility is an issue when she’s sitting in her power wheelchair and she was the height of a four- or five-year-old. If she was hit, all of her vital systems were in the path of a vehicle.”

Looking ahead, Buliung says he’s interested in studying the effects of climate change on people living with disabilities – for example, the barriers they face when they must evacuate due to extreme events like wildfires.

“If you look at the casualty figures of extreme weather events, you’ll find a disproportionate representation of elderly and disabled persons. It’s terrible, and unnecessary,” he says. “If you think about the pace of the recent fire in Maui ... the fire swept through so quickly – imagine trying to remove yourself if you have a mobility challenge.”

Buliung was recently named a Distinguished Professor in Geographies of Disability and Ableism for a five-year term. He joins two other U of T Mississauga faculty members – Kent Moore of the department of chemical and physical sciences and Robert Gerlai of the department of psychology – in the latest cohort of the program.

Buliung describes the designation as a “very big deal” for his research focus.

“This designation is honouring the subject matter of the work, and bringing maybe a bit more attention to disabilities in cities and the academy,” he says.

Over the next five years, he hopes to study the experience of siblings (with disabilities and/or without) of children with disabilities – a topic that is personally meaningful and aligns with his multidisciplinary approach to work.

As the father of three, he thinks about the experiences of all his children. 

“There is more work to be done looking at how siblings, parents, other family members and outside care workers relate to one another and disability within a family or household,” he says. “There can be some challenges around the disproportionate amount of time that can be associated with engaging in care work for one child.”

Buliung ultimately hopes his research will draw attention to important issues and ultimately create changes that will make people’s lives easier.

“The idea behind my research is: let’s just make things work. Let’s try to shape things in such a way that people who are disabled and their families have to do less work to basically access the same kinds of things that many other people do.”

U of T researcher explores how rent banks help prevent homelessness

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 21:13:03 +0000

U of T researcher explores how rent banks help prevent homelessness

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 12/18/2023 - 16:13

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Renters would benefit from long-term measures such as designated affordable housing units – such as those included in this Toronto rental complex – says Alison Smith, an associate professor at U of T Mississauga (photo by Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Subheadline

Research shows that rent banks can protect people from eviction in the short-term – but come with downsides

In many communities across Canada, renters who can’t make their next payment have a safety net that can protect them from getting evicted: rent banks.

Rent banks are essentially pools of money available to people who are at risk of eviction due to financial difficulties. While not a solution to the housing crisis, they’re an important service that can prevent people from becoming homeless, according to research by Alison Smith, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Smith is exploring the role that rent banks can play in helping prevent homelessness through her research project, Rent Banks as a Tool of Eviction Prevention: A comparative study of rent banks in Canada and Europe. For her research, which is supported by a Connaught New Researcher Award, Smith is studying rent bank programs available to Canadians and speaking with service providers across the country.

“Rent banks are an important intervention for the people who it is designed for,” says Smith, who is collaborating with colleagues from McGill University as well as service providers and research managers at Montreal’s Old Brewery Mission emergency shelter.

Alison Smith (supplied image)

Smith’s research shows that rent banks can help renters who need a month or two to get into a more stable position – whether that’s getting a new roommate, or a higher paying job.

“If people are evicted, there are a lot of consequences for that, that will follow them for a long time,” Smith says. “In the event that people are being evicted for financial reasons, research shows that there’s a downward trend in housing stability. Especially in this market, somebody is not going to be able to find an equivalent place to live in terms of cost or quality if they are evicted.”

While rent banks can help tenants in the short term, Smith is discovering downsides. For example, in some jurisdictions, tenants can only access a rent bank once every two years, which doesn’t help if they run into financial trouble again within that time.

Smith is also finding that rent banks might be a bandage solution to a larger, systemic problem. A risk of this kind of emergency intervention, especially amid rapidly rising rents, is that it may take funding away from other measures that could provide greater long-term benefit – for example, investing in more purpose-built rentals and non-market housing units.

“I think it’s a real challenge that housing providers and advocates are really confronted with,” says Smith. “They are trying to balance the very real emergency needs and crises that people are living in. They want the current moment to be stable for people, but that is very expensive.”

Associate Professor Alison Smith and her collaborators are working with Montreal's Old Brewery Mission emergency shelter and hope to establish a pilot rent bank there (photo by Andrej Ivanof/AFP via Getty Images)

In Ontario, rent banks are usually administered by local governments or non-profits, who provide funding to the landlord on behalf of the tenant. This funding covers rent arrears or provides emergency financial support to households that are suddenly unable to pay their full rent one month. While these payments may be grants that don’t need to be repaid, programs in other provinces, like Manitoba, provide loans that the tenant must repay.

Smith says the Connaught New Researcher Award will help her team explore rent banks in Europe, and how they compare to Canada. Ultimately, she hopes to use her research to help Old Brewery Mission, the largest emergency shelter and service provider in Quebec, establish a pilot rent bank to help residents.

“It would be so innovative for an emergency shelter to be working intensively on prevention. It would be an interesting shift,” Smith said.

U of T anthropologist explores how dreams vary across cultures and environments

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 19:20:46 +0000

U of T anthropologist explores how dreams vary across cultures and environments

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 11/29/2023 - 14:20

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(photo by Johnce/Getty Images)

Kristy Strauss

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

U of T Mississauga

Subheadline

“Dreams are a universal human experience, but their content and significance can differ widely"

We’ve all had dreams that have left us feeling anxious – whether about losing a loved one or writing an exam we’re unprepared for.

But if you’re from a forager community in East or Central Africa, your anxiety-inducing dreams are more likely to have included a resolution achieved with the help of social support – which may shed light on how culture influences the emotional function of dreams.

That’s according to a study, published in Nature Scientific Reports and led by David R. Samson, an associate professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, that explored how dreams play out across different socio-cultural environments.

David R. Samson (photo by Blake Eligh)

“Dreams are a universal human experience, but their content and significance can differ widely,” said Samson. “We wanted to explore how the content and emotional function of dreams might vary across different cultural contexts. By comparing dreams from forager communities in Africa to those from Western societies, we aimed to understand how cultural and environmental factors shape the way people dream.”

For their research, Samson and colleagues from the University of Geneva recorded the dreams of the BaYaka people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Hadza in Tanzania over a two-month period. For Western dreamers, they looked at journals and accounts of dreams from people living in Switzerland, Belgium and Canada, collected between 2014 and 2022.

They found that Western subjects’ dreams tended to focus more on individual stress and anxiety, while dreamers from forager communities in Africa experienced more social support.

“The dreams of the forager communities often began with threats but ended with resolutions involving social support, reflecting their strong social bonds,” Samson said. “In contrast, Western dreams tended to focus on less social aspects. This suggests that dreams are not solely products of neurophysiology, but are influenced by the cultural and social contexts of the dreamers.”

For example, a person from a forager community might dream that they are facing a threat such as being attacked by a wild animal, or falling down a well. That dream was usually resolved with the person being rescued by a member of their community – which highlights the role of social support within their communities.

In contrast, when individuals from Western societies faced a threat in their dream – like failing an important test or learning that a loved one had died – there was less emphasis on social support, and more on the stress and anxiety that the person was feeling within their dream.

While the research doesn’t answer the question of why people dream, Samson said it sheds light on how culture influences the emotional function of dreams.

“The ultimate purpose of dreaming is still a subject of ongoing research and debate,” he said. “Some theories suggest that dreaming serves to simulate threatening or social situations, helping individuals prepare for real-life challenges. However, the exact function of dreams continues to be a fascinating and evolving area of study.”

Samson hopes the findings will encourage more studies on the relationship between culture, society and the emotional function of dreams – which he says could help inform mental health research.

“Understanding these connections can offer insights into the human mind and emotions,” said Samson. “Additionally, it may have practical applications in fields such as psychology, where dream analysis could provide a culturally sensitive approach to understanding and addressing mental health issues.”

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:33:40 +0000

Research reveals what Google searches can tell us about the global human rights movement

siddiq22 Thu, 04/27/2023 - 15:33

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Geoff Dancy, an associate professor of political science at U of T Mississauga, used Google Trends to research where in the world people are most interested in human rights (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

University of Toronto Mississauga

When Geoff Dancy wanted to research where people are most interested in human rights, he fully expected it would come from countries in the Global North – such as Canada and the United States.

But when Dancy – an associate professor in the University of Toronto Mississauga's department of political science – and his colleague delved deeper into the topic, they discovered the total opposite was true: it is those in the Global South, who regularly face suffering and violence at the hands of their governments, who consistently search online for information about human rights.

“Our expectations were completely flipped on their head,” Dancy says. “It goes against this academic narrative that exists right now that human rights aren’t from – and don’t resonate in – the Global South. We found the exact opposite of that.”

Dancy, along with his colleague Christopher Fariss, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of political science, detail their findings in a new paper published in The American Political Science Review.

As part of their research, Dancy and Fariss used the Google Trends analytics tool, which collects aggregated data on what people are searching for on Google. They examined Google searches from between 2015 and 2019 for the term “human rights,” looking at data from 109 countries and across five languages.

As they analyzed the data, they discovered that interest in human rights was more pronounced in the Global South – for example, in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Ugandan activists gathered for a Pride rally in 2015 to mark a temporary loosening of anti-LGBTQ+ laws – in recent years, the government has passed stringent legislation against being openly gay (photo by Isaac Kasamani /AFP via Getty Images)

Dancy and Fariss found that the top three countries that searched for “human rights” the most in English were Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. In the Spanish-language group, the most searches came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

“The biggest correlation of searching for human rights is political violence," Darcy says. "If you live in a place where the government is attacking its citizens, then you see more searches for human rights."

He points to Uganda, whose government has passed stringent anti-LGBTQ+ laws that subject people to lifetime imprisonment – and more recently, the death penalty – for being openly gay.

“People are searching for human rights because they want to fight back against that,” Dancy says.

In Global North countries, the researchers discovered a different pattern. The United States, which did not make the top 12 searchers, scored high for one week in the summer of 2018 when there was extensive media coverage of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

While Dancy notes that 2021 falls outside of the study’s time period, he has since discovered a similar pattern in Canada. In September 2021, Google searches for human rights spiked in Canada – which coincides with major news events at the time, such as the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as vaccine mandates.

“In the Global North, they get very brief and ‘faddish’ interest in human rights and then it goes away,” Dancy says. “But in the Global South, people are constantly searching for human rights. There aren’t spikes and troughs, just steady searches.”

He adds that the research challenges scholars who claim that many people today are less attuned to concepts around human rights.

“There are a number of scholars who argue that human rights isn’t getting the job done – it isn’t going far enough to make change, and so people will lose interest in human rights as a global movement,” Dancy says.

“But people in the Global South very much want human rights . . . and find them to be a useful tool still. In some ways, this [research] is a reclamation of the importance of the human-rights movement around the world.”

The research received support from the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Social Science Korea Human Rights Forum, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

The future of takeout? U of T startup partners with restaurants to offer reusable containers

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 21:29:34 +0000

The future of takeout? U of T startup partners with restaurants to offer reusable containers

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/07/2023 - 16:29

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Inwit, a startup supported by U of T Mississauga's ICUBE incubator, has partnered with 16 Toronto restaurants to offer takeout meals in reusable stainless steel containers (photo courtesy of Inwit)

Kristy Strauss

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Our Community

Entrepreneurship Week

Mo Tahvili says juggling a marketing business, a startup and computer science studies at the University of Toronto is all part of building a better tomorrow.

Mo Tahvili

“I’ve always had an interest in doing something that has a good cause and will benefit the future – whether it is sustainability, or diversity and equity,” says Tahvili, who will receive a bachelor of science degree from U of T Mississauga this spring.

Tahvili is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Inwit, a Toronto startup that is dedicated to offering waste-free takeout.

Inwit – a recent finalist in U of T’s Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize competition – currently partners with 16 Toronto restaurants to offer takeout meals in reusable stainless steel containers. Inwit also offers a sustainable catering option, where corporate customers can order in advance for a work meeting or event. Through the Inwit web app, users can also order on-demand waste-free takeout from these restaurants, which will package their takeout in Inwit’s reusable containers.

If customers return their containers within seven days, they receive “impact points.” The points are rewards that can be used as discounts at Inwit’s participating restaurants. For example, someone who has earned 40,000 points can receive $10 off their next order.

“We inspire people to take climate action on the issue of single-use plastics and waste in the takeout industry,” says Erika Reyes, the company’s president and co-founder.

Reyes says she was inspired to start the business in an effort to address climate change and the high levels of single-use plastics usage in the food industry. She recruited business partner Clément Bureau during Inwit’s pilot phase.

To complete their team, Reyes and Bureau sought someone who shared their passion for making the takeout industry waste-free and who could improve the company’s online platform. They ultimately connected with Tahvili in 2021, when Inwit joined the Venture Forward program at ICUBE, U of T Mississauga’s entrepreneurship hub.

“I was a work study [at ICUBE], working mainly as a tech person ... and in some scenarios, helping with coding, marketing or any branding that startups need,” Tahvili says, adding that he was excited to work with a startup that he felt passionate about. “This was a perfect opportunity for me to get myself into this industry, and into the sustainability effort,” Tahvili says. “I feel good about what I’m doing as an entrepreneur.”

“We all have the same mission. In the end, it’s the same cause we’re all fighting for.”

A disposable container, left, vs Inwit's reusable container (photo courtesy of Inwit)

Tahvili will join Reyes and Bureau as they pitch their startup during the Desjardins Startup Prize Pitch Competition on March 9 – part of U of T Entrepreneurship Week. The competition awards $100,000 in prizes to recognize, reward and accelerate the university’s most innovative startups.

“We have heard a lot of positive feedback on our practice rounds before, so I’m excited,” says Tahvili. “I’m also going to see a lot of familiar faces from working at ICUBE, and I’m excited to show them the pitch.”