Alison Blay-Palmer

Contemporary Economic Geography

Wilfrid Laurier University

Third year course exploring the relationship between economies and space, scale and place.  Topics include: multinational corporations; globalization; labour; technology; the environment; the state; gender; and, culture.

Global Food Systems/Security, Agriculture and the Environment

Wilfrid Laurier University, Queen's University

Investigate the links between food security, food production and the environment from the developed and developing country perspectives.  Topics include:  resource use; economic structural issues; climate change; urban food security; water; and, biodiversity.

Globalization

Wilfrid Laurier University

Traces the evolution of massive shifts in the last decades and contemporary issues of globalization including: patterns of world trade; technology and flows of capital; transnational corporations and their global strategies; the debate about the ‘McDonaldization’ of culture; the effects of globalization on the environment; the political realities associated with globalization; and, local/global tensions.

Quantitative Research Methods in Geography

Wilfrid Laurier University

Survey of statistical techniques and tests beginning with an overview of descriptive analysis up to regression.

Introduction to Human Geography

Wilfrid Laurier University

First year course addressing the fundamentals of human geography including the meanings of space, place and scale as they relate to: sustainability; the impacts of globalization; multiculturalism; population change and movement; environmental history and politics; cultural geography; issues of uneven resource distribution; agricultural geography; and, urban geography.

Agrarian Transformation

Queen's University

Third year course exploring the role of agriculture in shaping the landscape, culture and economic realities in developed and developing countries.

Regional Development: Theory and Policy

Queen's University

Theory and practice of local economic development emphasizing sustainability, ‘green economy’, ecopreneurship and communities of practice. Included field trip to Interface Carpet, Belleville.

Sustainable Food Systems

Explores topics related to sustainable food including: technology, nature and society; policy dimensions in North America and the EU; knowledge and power; spaces of consumption; new urbanism and planning for food; food networks such as commodity chains and fairly traded food; and, alternative food systems.  The course questions our ability to move to sustainable food systems with particular attention to scaling-up.

Community Economic Development

The course explores dimensions of sustainable community development including the green economy.  The course combines case studies, hands on community development work with site visits and guest lectures to create a hands-on opportunity for students to learn about community economic development.