The award for “outstanding scholarship in the ecology of symbolic form“ was announced at the annual convention of the Media Ecology Association at the University of Winnipeg in June. Eaman authored Architecture as Communication: A Medium like No Other, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. He acknowledged the importance of Susanne Langer in his remarks, which were read at the ceremony:

“Taught by Alfred North Whitehead and influenced by Ernst Cassirer and Ludwig Wittgenstein among others, Langer went on to write Philosophy in a New Key (1942), which would have been a good candidate for Ripley’s Believe It or Not! in selling some 500,000 copies! It set the stage for a series of works further reconceptualizing the significance of signs and symbols and paving the way for my own treatment of architecture as a medium that communicates both symbolically and materially or in which, to be more philosophically precise, the symbolic and material are closely intertwined. It is, therefore, especially gratifying to have my work recognized as making a contribution in the tradition of Susanne K. Langer.” 

Three �Ӱ�ԭ�� first-year students represented the university at the 3rd Canadian Model EU, hosted by the University of Victoria from May 12 to 13, 2026. Rory Dupuis and Kennedy Durrell-Vander Meulen represented Hungary, and Kate Hunter represented Malta.  

Hunter is a Political Science student, and had the opportunity to compete after being referred by her teaching assistant. Her past work mainly dealt with issues in Canada, but the EU experience broadened her understanding of international affairs. 

“It was very interesting to see how people interacted, and I learned about new policies and how they were enacted. Now that I have done this, I feel that I can branch out more in the future,” Hunter said.  

The experience also provided Hunter with an opportunity to strengthen skills beyond the classroom, particularly in public speaking and communication. “I think the biggest thing I learned was how to talk with confidence. Seeing how the others talked allowed me to see the effects of speaking with confidence. When you speak with confidence, people are more likely to agree with and trust you.” 

Model EU has also influenced Hunter’s future goals; she now considers pursuing international relations after the experience.  

Dupuis is a Global and International Studies student. He first worked with Meulen during The Schuman Challenge 2025. After the two teamed up, Meulen suggested seeking guidance from Political Science professor Achim Hurrelmann, an expert on the European Union. Their top-five finish in the competition led Hurrelmann to invite them to participate in Model EU.  

Dupuis said representing Hungary required him to balance national interests with the need to reach agreements with other delegations, giving him a firsthand look at the compromises involved in international diplomacy.  

Despite having previous experience participating in Model UN, this new experience gave Dupuis a new perspective on negotiation and diplomacy. 

“I think being able to put myself out there to handle and negotiate such important matters was very eye-opening in my first year and definitely reinforced my interest in public relations,” Dupuis said.  

Unlike Model UN, where delegates often focus on debate, Dupuis said Model EU placed a greater emphasis on coalition-building and negotiation. “Next time, I would definitely take a stand early on and formulate partnerships early. Model EU taught me to be open to opportunities and not to be afraid to ask.” 

Joining Dupuis and Hunter at the event is Meulen, a physics student minoring in Political Science. Meulen said one of the most rewarding aspects of the competition was being treated as an equal among more experienced participants. “I especially loved how we were playing on equal grounds. Even though we were the only first years there, we felt respected and treated fairly,” she said. 

Despite being fully prepared before attending, the immersive stimulation allowed Meulen to get a better understanding of how the EU functioned. As a result, Meulen won the award for “Best Negotiator (Heads of Government)” and was voted by the other students as the participant “Most Likely to Work For The EU.”  

This opportunity was made possible by Professor Hurrelmann, who created a specialized mini-course to make sure the students were ready for the contest. 

Hurrelmann said he was proud of what the students accomplished and hopes they continue to build on the experience throughout their academic and professional careers.

When �Ӱ�ԭ�� University was formally and unanimously admitted into membership of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) at the network’s annual assembly in Inari, Finland, last weekend, the organization gained an international leader in Arctic research and education. �Ӱ�ԭ�� has a long history of collaborating with northern communities to help empower the next generation of leaders and address societal, environmental and economic challenges in the region.

From June 9^th to June 12^th, 2026, Madeline Russell, a graduating MPPA students, as well as Mahole Morapeli and Cilvius Chin from NPSIA joined a team of law students from the University of Ottawa (UofO) to participate in the prestigious Model ICAO event at the world headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montréal. Dr. Marc Rioux, Adjunct Research Professor and Executive Director of SPPA’s Transportation Policy Innovation Centre, accompanied the joint �Ӱ�ԭ��-UofO team as academic advisor.

ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. The Model ICAO event exposes students to real high-level diplomatic and technical discussions taking place in the ICAO Council (the management board of the organization). Students represent actual Member States and participate in simulated deliberations on important matters related to international civil aviation. They are asked to develop informed policy positions and present them convincingly to other delegations.

The joint �Ӱ�ԭ��/UofO team represented Australia, a Contracting State sitting on the Council. Team members had the chance to meet the Australian Permanent Representative (ambassador) to learn more about that country’s positions on international aviation issues to be discussed in five technical committees (environment, safety, security, legal and economic) as well as in the Council itself. In addition, they had the opportunity to meet various ICAO and international experts during the deliberations in their respective committees and networking activities.

The registration fees and travel expenses of the three students were paid by the Transportation Policy Innovation Centre.

Professor��Mehdi Ammi, a faculty member in �Ӱ�ԭ��’s School of Public Policy & Administration,��will lead a team of��researchers��and partners��from across Canada��on a��new��project entitled, “Public Health Financing and Equity: Building Evidence and Networks for Resilient Systems in Canada.”��The project will be supported��for three years��by a $749,700 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, through their Team Grant program��supporting research on the theme of��Strengthening Resilient & Equitable Public Health Systems.����

“Since beginning researching this topic in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that a deeper understanding of the trends, determinants, and impacts of public health financing in Canada is needed,” says Professor Ammi. “I was excited to see the call for a Team Grant dedicated to public health systems, and thrilled and honored that our project was selected through such a highly competitive process.”  

Building on several years of collaboration and leadership in the area of public health financing research, the team will leverage its extensive network of academic, public sector, and community partners to address critical gaps in Canada’s capacity to monitor and improve public health financing through an equity lens.  

“Professor Ammi’s research promises to have profound impact on Canada’s public health system,” says Josh Greenberg, Associate Dean (Research and Graduate). “With this timely and important grant, Mehdi continues to build a strong profile within Canada and internationally as a leading health economist and health policy researcher.”  

Over the next three years, Professor Ammi and his STEPS team will analyze differences in public health spending across provinces and regions, assess how public health and social spending together influence and are influenced by population health and health inequities, and work together to design and pilot one of Canada’s first learning health systems for public health financing in Québec, Ontario and British Columbia.  

This project is anchored by a bilingual tri-partite leadership team representing Canada’s three largest provinces. Along Professor Ammi, the tri-partite leadership team include Lara Miramontes from the British Columbia Ministry of Health, and Thomas Bastien from the Association pour la Santé Publique du Québec (ASPQ). The team of co-investigators also includes �Ӱ�ԭ��’s School of Public Policy and Administration Assistant Professor Ardyn Nordstrom.   

This is the second CIHR Team Grant awarded to a Faculty of Public and Global Affairs researcher in 2026. CIHR Team Grants support larger, cross-sectoral research teams conducting health-related research, contributing to the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs vision to lead, connect and transform.

Jessica Patterson and Kanina Holmes have won the Michener – L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education for their project, “AI Literacy for Canadian Journalism Education.” 

The fellowship, awarded by the Michener Awards Foundation, recognizes initiatives that advance public service in Canadian journalism. For more than 50 years, the Michener Awards have honoured journalism that contributes to the public good. 

Patterson,��an alumna��of �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s School of Journalism and Communication, and Holmes, an associate professor at the same school, developed a project to test and create modules that will prepare students for the critical and ethical use of AI in newsrooms. The initiative focuses on strengthening the public’s trust in journalism by ensuring that journalists are trained to use these tools responsibly.��“We’re grateful for the Michener Foundation’s support, which makes this work possible,” said Patterson, who received a recognition of the fellowship with Holmes ��

Patterson said the project grew out of interviews she and colleague Terra Tailleur conducted with editors-in-chief at 12 Canadian newsrooms last year. Those conversations suggested that many newsrooms still lacked clear frameworks or policies for using AI, leaving journalists cautious about how to adopt the technology responsibly and ethically.  

“Layered over all of it was this new reality: that AI was now part of the editorial workflow, and it wasn’t going anywhere, but journalism education had not yet caught up,” said Patterson, who studied with Holmes as a graduate student in journalism.  

Patterson and Holmes plan to create a curriculum that any journalism program in Canada can use, providing instructors with practical modules and training so they don’t need to build resources from scratch. 

The project arrives at a moment when news organizations are still working out how to use AI responsibly, while balancing questions about accuracy, bias and transparency. 

“It feels like we’re living in the Wild West when it comes to AI,” Holmes said. “Journalism students are navigating a chaotic information ecosystem at a time when the value of what we bring to the public sphere is questioned.”  

Holmes said the fellowship provides an opportunity to collaborate with students and instructors to identify gaps in AI education and explore its implications for both learning and professional practice. 

“A key question we need to constantly ask ourselves is: how do we know what we know?” Holmes said. “AI often obscures the provenance of information, making critical media literacy more vital than ever.” 

The project received strong support from �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s Teaching and Learning Services as well as the director of the journalism program, Allan Thompson. 

“This project addresses head-on an urgent need identified across Canadian journalism programs,’’ Thompson said. “As educators, we recognize the gap between newsroom expectations for AI literacy and current pedagogical resources. We urgently need tested, ready-to-use curriculum modules that balance practical AI tool training with critical ethical frameworks.” 

Patterson said her immediate focus is completing the project well, with the hope that it will create a foundation for broader adoption across Canadian journalism schools. She hopes to foster a community of practice around AI literacy in journalism education so the work can evolve alongside changing technology and newsroom expectations.

Their book Overseen or Overlooked? Legislators, Armed Forces, and Democractic Accountability was judged to be the best book published in the field of comparative politics in 2024-25

Their book Overseen or Overlooked? Legislators, Armed Forces, and Democractic Accountability was judged to be the best book published in the field of comparative politics in 2024-25

Two students in the Bachelor of Global and International Studies program at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University have been selected as Pathy Foundation fellows. Kiara Gibbs-Cawker and Madina Mashkoori will join the 11th cohort of this national fellowship, which supports young leaders in developing community-based initiatives across Canada.

What are you focused on these days? 

My focus these days is on working with collaborators and students to share stories of resilience and success in the face of the environmental challenges we face. These are challenging times, whether that’s because of the state of the environment, geopolitics, or the ongoing inequities of settler-colonialism in countries like Canada. My attention is on the ways in which people are working together to address these issues, often in coalitions of settler and Indigenous partners working together. 

Why is this work important right now?  

I believe this is such an exciting time to be alive and working on these issues. The stakes are so high, and the opportunities are vast. To survive as cultures and civilizations, we must do things very differently, while being informed by wisdom traditions that go way back in time. I hope that my work can help to bridge the past and future, while encouraging students to see places for themselves in the exciting work ahead.  

What is a question you hope to answer with your research? 

One project I co-direct, with Māori scholar Prof. John Reid from the University of Canterbury, is entitled ‘Living Relations’. It is about sharing stories of how Indigenous and settler partners are working together to respond to the food system sustainability transition challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada. This knowledge sharing project amplifies and builds dialogue among Indigenous-led food systems initiatives to show how they strengthen Indigenous food sovereignty and improve broader societal resilience. I’m intrigued by the questions of how we work together, across cultures, histories and continents, to build a better future together. The answers are subtle. They involve rethinking how we think, and talk, and engage with one another in ways that the western academy has not been very good at.  

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

I’ve been training to be a meditation teacher and increasingly bring guided meditations into the classroom. I even won a teaching achievement award to do this and will hold an event next year at �Ӱ�ԭ�� on the topic of Mindful Approaches to Ecopolitics. I discovered mindfulness practices during the pandemic, to grapple with my own anxieties at feeling little control for our collective predicament. I’ve learned that others value these tools and the values that underpin them too. It’s also a whole new type of teaching, as this is less about sharing content and more about sharing ways of approaching our inner experiences.  

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area? 

Many non-Indigenous researchers feel uneasy about engaging in research with Indigenous peoples and communities, feeling it is not their place to do so, or that they will make mistakes. I can understand this. There is much that Indigenous researchers and communities need to take the lead on. And I have made many mistakes. At the same time, decolonization involves all of us. Figuring out how to do this work collaboratively and respectfully is something people of all backgrounds and positionalities can find a place in.  

Any new projects you’re excited about? 

One of my favourite projects these days is the . This is a podcast for students to learn about environmental politics, but its reach has grown widely through platforms like youtube and itunes. The podcast is mostly long-form interviews with prominent environmental activists and academics who have such interesting insights to share! And almost every episode has a discussion about how and where they find ‘hope’. I love the answers we get! I started this podcast with my colleague Prof. Ryan Katz-Rosene from the University of Ottawa during the pandemic, but it’s taken on a life of its own. 

What’s your favourite class to teach? 

I love my environmental politics courses, of which I teach 3 or 4 in political science. Almost all involve real-life simulations, whether of international treaty negotiations, or deliberations on environmental issues facing Canadians. Students learn so much in these exercises. They need to embody diverse perspectives on these issues and then figure out how to find common ground with one another.