Courses

Advanced Urban Research Project: Health and Food Justice in Toronto During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Professor: Neil Price
Course code: URB438H1
Format: Seminar

About this course

This course is an opportunity to be directly involved with an ongoing, multidisciplinary research project (funded by the Trans-Atlantic Partnership) examining community-based actions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing social, health and nutritional inequities and highlighted common challenges facing marginalized and racialized communities in cities across the Global North and South. It has also driven new social innovations and cross-sector collaborations, some of which may have the potential to transform the longstanding inequities that undermine global health, food systems and governance processes.

Through this course, you will learn from the Toronto team of researchers from Urban Studies, Public Health and International Development Studies as well as our community partners. You will gain training in qualitative case study and community-based research methodologies, and you will contribute to the research through the development of a case study using the methods taught in the course. We hope to provide the opportunity for some students to present their course projects to the international research team after the course concludes.

What you’ll learn

  • Case study research methodologies and their application to examining community issues and examples of mutual care
  • The principles, actions, outcomes and challenges related to community groups and their struggle for food and health justice 
  • Community-level responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their collective impact  

Course highlights

This course is open to fourth-year undergraduate students from any discipline or department at U of T. The course is designed as an experiential and participatory learning experience delivered through course readings, group work and hands-on projects. This is an opportunity for students to contribute to an active faculty research project working to better understand and support community-based food and health justice initiatives in Toronto. 

A personal note from your instructor

Neil Price headshot

Neil Price

I am excited to teach URB438H1S, as it provides an opportunity for me to think about and share my ongoing research related to community organizations’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to examining case studies with students who are interested in community-level organizing, social justice and community development. The course invites students to learn from a Toronto team of researchers from Urban Studies, Public Health and International Development Studies as well as our community partners. You will gain training in qualitative case study and community-based research methodologies, and you will contribute to the research through the development of a case study using the methods taught in the course.

Good to know

Recommended preparation: URB235H1, URB236H1, URB342H1

Exclusions: INI438H1, INI438Y1

Distribution requirements: Social Science

Breadth requirements: Society and Its Institutions (3)

Have a question?

Need more info? Want to discuss if the Urban Studies Program is right for you? Looking for help in choosing courses? Rima Oassey, the Innis College academic program coordinator, can help!

programs.innis@utoronto.ca
416-946-7107