SEDRD Students, Alumni, and Faculty Share Rural Research at 2026 Relational Wellness Conference

SEDRD Students, Alumni, and Faculty Share Rural Research at 2026 Relational Wellness Conference
Students, alumni, and faculty from the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) at the University of Guelph made important contributions to the 2026 Relational Wellness Conference, co-hosted by the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, the North Atlantic Forum, and Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland. Their presentations demonstrated the breadth of rural research and practice taking place within SEDRD and highligh...

Research Summary: The Living Room of a Rural Community

Research Summary: The Living Room of a Rural Community
The University of Guelph is home to a wide diversity of research on rural people, places, and environments. As a leader in rural research, this video series facilitates knowledge sharing across rural Ontario and beyond. This video highlights recent research by Lucas Berek completed in 2025 titled The Living Room of a Rural Community. This thesis examines the actors, processes, and COVID-19 influences shaping economic development in the Town of New Tecum...

Reclaiming the “Right to Be Rural”: New Chapter Explores Community Power in Changing Times

Reclaiming the “Right to Be Rural”: New Chapter Explores Community Power in Changing Times
A newly published chapter in Critical Futures: Community-Engaged Research in a Time of Social Transformation (University of Toronto Press) invites readers to rethink what it means to live, work, and thrive in rural places today. Written by Sean Markey, Ashleigh Weeden, Ryan Gibson, Greg Halseth, and Laura Ryser, “Community-Engaged Research and the ‘Right to Be Rural’” challenges long-held assumptions that cast rural communities as outdated, declining, or s