Hi everyone,

Next week’s IRES Seminar is in the Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre.

February 1, 2024: Professional Development Seminar with Elder Jim Leyden

Pursuing paths of impact: an Indigenous experience at the frontline

Location: Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre (Basement, 2212 Main Mall). Please check in at front desk on main floor before going downstairs.

No food or drinks allowed in the Theatre.

Click here to register for Zoom link. Zoom will be terminated if we encounter tech problems 5 to 10 mins into the seminar.

Talk summary:

What do we hold precious today? What are we willing to do to protect them? For Kwekwecnewtxw Watch House Elder Jim Leyden and an Indigenous-led collective of volunteers at the Mountain Protectors, the bases of their work are the love for this land and waters, and the obligations to future generations who will inherit this place. The federally-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project not only violates Indigenous rights, but poses serious threats to climate change, biodiversity, and rights to clean and sustainable coastline and environment. As oil spills are inevitable, the Mountain Protectors arose out of a necessity to surveil, document, and report ongoing TMX activities to hold the Crown corporation accountable. Jim will tell his personal stories working at the frontline, and share his perspectives on community-engaged research, and how to do it well.

Jim Leyden, Elder at Kwekwecnewtxw (Coast Salish watch house) on Lhuḵw’lhuḵw’áyten and traditional Indigenous land defender and water protector

Bio:

Jim Leyden is a traditional Indigenous land defender and water protector with Anishinaabe and Irish-Italian ancestry. Invited by Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Elders, he became the Elder at Kwekwecnewtxw (Coast Salish watch house) on Lhuḵw’lhuḵw’áyten (Burnaby Mountain) since 2018. His role is to conduct ceremonies to keep peace and monitor activities of the Trans Mountain tank farm and pipeline expansion project. He was trained in social work and has extensive experience supporting addiction recovery and expanding Indigenous programs in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) and beyond.

 

See you next Thursday in the Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre!

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bonnie Leung

RES Program Support (she/her/hers)

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)

University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL Building)

Room 429 – 2202 Main Mall | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z4 | Canada

 

Email: bonnie.leung@ubc.ca

Tel: 604-822-9249

The UBC Sustainability Hub is again offering UBC graduate students the opportunity to work in funded sustainability internship projects. Below is a list of projects that we believe align well with the research interests of students in the Soil, Water and Sustainability Research Group along with a link to access all the other projects.

• 2024-064 Research and test tools and methods for assessing carbon sequestration in parkland 
• Link to access all postings

The applications close at midnight on Sunday, January 28, 2024. I would greatly appreciate it if you would please circulate the details provided below to the graduate students in your group or any other students in your network who may be interested. If you have any questions about the program or projects, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Tank you for your help in notifying your graduate students about these opportunities! I apologize for any inconvenience if you’ve seen this email earlier.

Warm regards,

Kah Mun Wan (Carmen)

She/Her/Hers

Program Specialist |Sustainability Hub

The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus| Traditional xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Territory
CIRS Building, 2131-2260 West Mall | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada

carmen.wan@ubc.ca

 

 

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – UBC SUSTAINABILITY SCHOLARS (PAID SUMMER INTERNSHIPS)

 

The UBC Sustainability Hub is pleased to offer UBC graduate students the opportunity to work on funded sustainability internship projects.

 

We are currently accepting applications for over 60 internships that will commence May 1, 2024. Current UBC graduate students from all academic disciplines are encouraged to confirm the eligibility requirements and apply.

 

Successful candidates work under the guidance of a mentor at one of our partner organizations, and are immersed in real world learning where they can apply their research skills and contribute to advancing sustainability and climate action across the region. Each Scholar receives $27.50 per hour to complete 250 hours of work.

 

For more information on the available projects and to apply, visit the Sustainability Scholars Program website.

 

Applications will be accepted until midnight Sunday January 28.

 

IOF SEMINAR – January 26, 2024 Zombie ideas in marine ecology: ruminations around thresholds for hypoxia impacts Speaker: Dr. Jordan Rosenfeld Honorary Faculty Applied Freshwater Research Unit, BC Ministry of Environment Hypoxia is defined as depression of dissolved oxygen levels below saturation, and can have negative impacts on plants and animals reliant on oxygen for growth and survival. Thresholds for hypoxia in marine pelagic systems have traditionally been defined as 2 mg/l or thereabouts in the academic literature. However, this is well below saturation, and well below the threshold for negative impacts on physiology, growth, and survival for many organisms. In contrast, threshold for hypoxia in freshwater and in most jurisdictional regulations are typically set at much higher values (range of 4-6 mg/l). The origin of thresholds for hypoxia in marine pelagic systems is obscure, but appears to be based on catastrophic collapse or change in community structure, while thresholds in freshwater are based on incipient impacts to individual growth or survival. Dr. Rosenfeld speculates on the origins of this discrepancy and it’s implications for management and perceptions of impact in freshwater and marine ecosystems The importance of collaborative interdisciplinary research to white sturgeon recovery and conservation Speaker: Dr. Steve McAdam Adjunct Faculty White Sturgeon Recovery Lead, BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship White sturgeon is a species of conservation concern throughout its range, and within British Columbia half of the populations have been undergoing recruitment collapse for over 50 years. Chronic recruitment failure of populations residing in three large, regulated rivers represents an existential threat in the absence of hatchery inputs and habitat remediation. Three areas of interdisciplinary research provide important support for white sturgeon management and recovery. First, interdisciplinary collaboration between the fields of biology and fluvial geomorphology identified the need for spawning habitat remediation. Ongoing research supports the challenges of implementation and monitoring of physical habitat restoration in large rivers. A second interdisciplinary research area arose from the unexplained mortalities of large white sturgeon in the summer of 2022. Evaluation of metal/PCB/dioxin levels in recovered carcasses provides the opportunity to evaluate toxin loads in this long-lived apex predator that may experience both bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Third, eco-physiological investigations of white sturgeon thermal tolerance provide important inputs for evaluating the effects of climate change. Evaluation of multiple life stages has identified thermal thresholds that can support evaluations of thermal risks to wild populations. Interdisciplinary collaborative research on white sturgeon provides an example of effectively linking basic science to applied applications in support of fish conservation in BC.

Friday, January 26, 2024 – 11:00am  – 12:00pm Live: AERL Theatre, 2202 Main Mall UBC Online: Zoom (RSVP to receive link)

Please let me know about your intention to apply by Jan 25, 2024

 

Please review the eligibility criteria here: Indigenous Graduate Fellowships – Graduate School – University of British Columbia – Vancouver – Canada (ubc.ca)

The Indigenous Graduate Fellowship (IGF) offers multi-year fellowships are provided to Indigenous Master’s and Doctoral students in all disciplines. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition, administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Opportunities for (i) Indigenous PhD students in their fourth year to apply for a fifth year of funding and (ii) for research Master’s and PhD students to apply for research funding, which are also outlined below.

Please note that a distinct application deadline has been set for candidates, February 16, 2024 at 4:00PM PT, and the graduate program nomination deadline to follow two weeks later.

Indigenous Graduate Fellowships competition

Each fellowship provides a stipend of $18,200 per year for Doctoral students or a stipend of $16,175 per year for Master’s students. Additionally, IGF recipients are eligible to receive tuition funding. Tuition funding will not exceed the current value of the standard Doctoral or Master’s degree tuition fees. In all cases, continued fellowship support is conditional on satisfactory academic progress. Recipients of Master’s fellowship funding must re-apply to be considered for Doctoral funding.

All Indigenous students are eligible to apply, but priority is given to Indigenous students whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada. This includes Canadian First Nations, Métis or Inuit students and may include Indigenous students from Alaska and other states of the USA. The University may request further information to confirm Indigenous eligibility. As of January 2023, the IGF is also open to students in professional and coursework-only Master’s programs.

• Application Deadline: February 16 2024, at 4:00PM PT
• Graduate Program nomination deadline: March 1 2024, at 4:00PM PT
• For complete application and nomination details, see https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/indigenous-graduate-fellowships

Note: On the IGF Nomination Form, graduate program will be asked they intend to recommend their doctoral nominees for funding from the 4YF program. If so, and the nominee is subsequently ranked high enough to be offered IGF funding, the applicant will receive a “4YF-I” (same value as 4YF / IGF) plus a $5,000 per year IGF stipend top-up for the duration of the 4YF-I. In such cases, the 4YF-G returns to graduate program and may be offered to a different student as the 4YF-I is centrally funded by G+PS. (Note: if the nominee is not ranked high enough to be offered IGF funding, the graduate program will be responsible for providing 4YF funding from their existing 4YF allocation.)

IGF 5th Year Award

Indigenous PhD students in their 4th year are able to apply for 5th year funding through the IGF 5th Year Award. The award, valued at $18,200 per annum plus tuition, is awarded on the recommendation of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to full-time Indigenous doctoral students from all disciplines to fund their 5th year of study, where research involves community-engaged methodologies and approaches.

IGF Research & Engagement Award

Funding in support of research and travel expenses for Indigenous graduate students has been made available through the IGF Research & Engagement Award to current holders of the Indigenous Graduate Fellowship. Recipients of the award will be engaged in work that contributes directly or indirectly to community engagement and relationship building with Indigenous communities. Successful candidates will receive a minimum of $3,000 for Master’s students and a minimum of $5,000 for Doctoral students.  Additional funding may be offered depending on budget availability.

• Application deadline for both awards: February 16 2024, at 4:00PM PT

For information on eligibility and application procedures, including application forms, please consult the G+PS

APPLICATIONS CLOSE JANUARY 28 – UBC SUSTAINABILITY SCHOLARS (PAID SUMMER INTERNSHIPS) 

The UBC Sustainability Hub is pleased to offer UBC graduate students the opportunity to work on funded sustainability internship projects.

We are currently accepting applications for 65 internships that will commence May 1, 2024. Current UBC graduate students from all academic disciplines are encouraged to confirm the eligibility requirements and apply.

Successful candidates work under the guidance of a mentor at one of our partner organizations, and are immersed in real world learning where they can apply their research skills and contribute to advancing sustainability and climate action across the region. Each Scholar receives $27.50 per hour to complete 250 hours of work.

For more information on the available projects and to apply, visit the Sustainability Scholars Program website.

2024 SS List of Projects v3 2024Jan17

Applications will be accepted until 11:59 pm Sunday January 28.

 

We also appreciate your help in circulating this notice to anyone in your grad student network that may be interested!

 

 

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Karen Taylor  MA (she, her)
Senior Manager, Sustainability Scholars & Strategic Implementation | Sustainability Hub
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory
2343 – 2260 West Mall | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada
Phone 604 822 9362 | karen.taylor@ubc.ca | https://sustain.ubc.ca/scholars