We are an interdisciplinary research team based at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario. Most broadly, the focus of our research is resilience and risk within the context of Canadian rural and resource-dependent communities, including Aboriginal contexts.
We are currently undertaking a project assessing the capacity of rural Ontario municipal critical infrastructure sectors to respond to the challenges of a changing climate. Two additional projects are focused on growth and innovation in the maple syrup industry, as well as developing approaches to undertaking research across disciplines and cultures in the context of climate change. We are also working with Aboriginal partners to provide a suite of disaster resilience planning tools.
On this site, we share our research interests, publications, news and opinions on the latest developments in community disaster resilience. For more information about our research interests, team, how to contact us and our publications, use the menu above. You can contact the site administrator Bryce Gunson at [email protected].
New Publications
We are pleased to announce that new article titled “Photovoice, Emergency Management and Climate Change: A Comparative Case Study Approach” by Samantha Russo, Kylie Hissa, Dr. Brenda Murphy, and Bryce Gunson has been published in Qualitative Research. Through work conducted in two rural areas recovering from natural disasters in Ontario, Canada, our paper underscores the value of undertaking a comparative case-study approach, offers a detailed reporting of the fieldwork and analysis and illustrates how photovoice can engage rural citizens in local dialogues about climate change adaptation. Aligning with the journals’ focus on methodologies in qualitative research, we offer lessons learned related to the project’s processes and outcomes. A link to the article is provided here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468794120934398
Russo, S., Hissa, K., Murphy, B., & Gunson, B. (2020). Photovoice, emergency management and climate change: a comparative case-study approach. Qualitative Research, 14(6), 87-94.
We have also published the findings from our work on youth outdoor education on the value of maple syrup in a changing climate. That work is available below.
Gunson, B., Murphy, B.L. and Brown, L. (2021). Measuring the effectiveness of an outdoor education program on high school students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours towards climate change – Climate change S.O.S. – Save Our Syrup! Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 13(3), 36-55.