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Dr. Peter Graham, School of Community & Public Affairs, Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability

  • À temps partiel, School of Community and Public Affairs

Research areas: Sustainability, Social cognition, Material Engagement Theory, Sociocultural Analysis, Constitutive Value, Heterodox Economics

Contact information

Biography

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist with ongoing research on the challenge of societal transformation for sustainability. My work begins from an understanding of the negative consequences of the overly reductionist perspective typical of contemporary sustainability research. A systems perspective needs to incorporate a realistic understanding of human mind as mediated, as well as extended and distributed throughout environment. When we introduce a poorly theorized thing into the system, whether overly atomistic theoretical model or instrumentally materialized technology, we impoverish the entire system.  

Research interests

Sustainable studies, education for sustainable development, relational ontology, social cognition, material engagement theory, environmental philosophy.

Teaching activities

Teaching experience

Course Name Course Number Period Times
ENGR392 Winter 2021 - Winter 2023 6
ESTU611 Fall 2019 - Fall 2019 1
ESTU635 Winter 2019 - Winter 2019 1
GEOG470 Fall 2019 - Fall 2019 1
LOYC230 Fall 2018 - Fall 2023 4
LOYC330 Fall 2011 - Fall 2011 1
LOYC398 Winter 2016 - Winter 2023 5
LOYC398C Fall 2014 - Winter 2014 2
LOYC420 Winter 2014 - Winter 2020 6
SCPA201 Fall 2021 - Fall 2022 2
SCPA215 Fall 2007 - Fall 2023 16
SCPA412 Winter 2022 - Winter 2022 1
SCPA543J Summer 2013 - Summer 2013 1
Other Academic Work Experience
Winter 2016 Teaching Fellow Queen's University ENSC 390 Sustainability
Fall 2012 Co-instructor McGill School of EnvironmentENV 400 Environmental Thought
Winter 2022 Co-instructor McGill School of Environment ENV 400 Environmental Thought

Publications

Graham, P. & Lavalle, S. (2024). The case for unsustainability in the university curriculum. The International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context. 20(1), 117-135. doi: https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-1115/CGP/v20i01/117-135  
Graham, P. & Upitis, R. (in press) Chapter 1: The Matter of Reconciliation. In M. R. Carter, Y.-S. Huang, C. Mitchell, T. Strong-Wilson, D. Ranjan, T. Starlight, A. Weenie & M. Sorensen (Eds.). Seasons of Change: Interdisciplinary Pedagogies for Reconciliation and Redress. UBC Press.
Graham, Peter. (2022). Wickedness Deciphered: Mediated Action and the Democratization of Agency. The International Journal of Sustainability Policy and Practice 18 (2): 1-12. doi:10.18848/2325-1166/CGP/v18i02/ 1-12.
Graham, P., Brown, S., Goebel, A., Hovorka, A., Khan, C., Kuyvenhoven, C., Scheinman, E., Arshad-Ayaz, A., & Upitis, R. (2021). The emotional experience of sustainability courses: Learned eco-anxiety, potential ontological adjustment. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 15(1), 1-15.
Graham, P. (2020). Traces of (Un-) Sustainability: Towards a Materially Engaged Ecology of Mind. New York: Peter Lang.
Graham, P.; Carter, M.; Upitis, R. & Currie-Williams, K. (2020). Beyond Ontological Autonomy: Finding One’s Self in Relations. Identity Landscapes: Contemplating Place and the Construction of Self. Brill/Sense.
Smith, M.; Speiran, S. & Graham, P. (2020) Megaliths, Material Engagement, and the Atmospherics of Neolithic Ethics: Pre-sage for the End(s) of Tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 29, (2–3).
Graham, P. (2019). Material Engagement Theory and Sustainability: The materiality of social change. The Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability (JSIS) 14(2), https://doi.org/10.33423/jsis.v14i3.2107.
Graham, P., & Arshad-Ayaz. (2016). Learned Unsustainability: Bandura’s Bobo Doll Revisited. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 10(2), 1–12.
Graham, P. (2011). On the illusory nature of sustainable development: A case study of a Montreal suburb. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
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