Thomas Homer-Dixon - Sustainability Network

You migiht think I haven't been cooking or buying or perusing vegetables and fruits and cheeses at the farmer's markets of late since I keep posting about EVENTS but I simply want to celebrate all of the wonderful open forum and community happenings that are currently going on in our city. Spring always engenders a desire in me to pick up new hobbies and follow through on all of those hare-brained ideas I dreamt up during the dormancy of winter.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is the Director of the Center for the Study of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the author of a number of books, including The Ingenuity Gap, which won the 2001 Governor's General Award for Literary Nonfiction. I have a personal connection with him because I went to visit with him one fine day down in his cavernous office space in a rather medieval building on the U of T campuses. I was thinking about doing my MA in his department and I wanted to talk about a number of issues and questions I had. He was really great to chat with, very conversational, approachable, and full of insight and supportive ideas. He was the antithesis of my other experiences at U of T that very much reminded me of Queen's - elitist, patriarchal, extremely competitive, exclusive. I did not pursue my MA at U of T. At the time, I was also considering attending the Straford Chef's School. And doing a MA in Anthropology at Guelph so that I could take some interdisciplinary courses with their agricultural departments.

Anyway, the Sustainability Network, whose tagline is "strengthening management skills and building capacity in the environmental community", is hosting a breakfast next Wednesday, May 31st, starting at 7:30 a.m. and held at 215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 128. The cover charge is $10. The focus of the presentation will be "the rising likelihood fo the breakdown of the economic, political, technological, and ecological systems that sustain humankind".