Shirley Roburn

Background

Biography

Communication Studies, Concordia University / Études en communications, Université Concordia

Roburn is a long-time community activist and has served as an employee, volunteer and organizer for many environmental justice and human rights organizations, ranging in scope from Amnesty International to the Yukon Conservation Society, from CoCo (a Montreal umbrella organization that builds capacity in the allophone and anglophone community sector) to SPEC, the community group that spawned Greenpeace. Roburn is also a journalist, editor, creative writer and media producer in areas concerning environmental justice. In her contribution, she intertwines this vast body of experience with her academic research on the human and more-than-human populations of the Arctic. While as a junior scholar, Roburn will benefit considerably from the mentoring opportunities of the workshop, the rest of the participants will be richly rewarded by the opportunity to engage Roburn's considerable experience outside of academia in considering issues of water, ethics and the more-than-human.

Roburn est une activiste communautaire de longue date et a travaillé comme salariée, bénévole et organisatrice au sein de nombreux organismes pour la justice sociale et les droits humains, allant de l’Amnistie Internationale à la Yukon Conservation Society, de COCo (un organisme ombrelle montréalais qui promeut le développement du milieu communautaire anglophone et allophone) à SPEC, le groupe communautaire qui a engendré Greenpeace. Roburn est aussi journaliste, éditrice, auteure de création littéraire et productrice médiatique dans la sphère de la justice environnementale. Pour sa contribution, elle mêle cette vaste expérience à sa recherche universitaire sur les populations humaines et plus-qu’humaines de l’Arctique. En tant que chercheure universitaire, Roburn en est à ses débuts : elle pourra donc considérablement tirer profit des occasions de mentorat de l’atelier. En revanche, les participants pourront jouir de sa vaste expérience à l’extérieur de l’université en ce qui a trait aux questions de l’eau, de l’éthique et du plus-qu’humain.

Please see Oceans Listen: The Acoustic Ecology of Ocean Governance.

Veuillez voir le résumé: Oceans Listen: The Acoustic Ecology of Ocean Governance (v.f.).

Publications

• "Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon" in W. Buxton Ed. Harold Innis and the Canadian North (currently under consideration).
• "Chlorine Conflicts." Alternatives. 29.2 (2003): 26
• "Literacy and the Underdevelopment of Knowledge." Mediatribe: Concordia University's Undergraduate Journal of Communication Studies. 4.1 (1994)
• (co-authored with S. Patel) A Guide to Resources in Sustainable Food and Transportation Systems. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.
• (co-authored with S. Patel) Feeding the City from the Back Forty: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Food Production. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.