Blog – SOPR Stories

A collage of colourful artwork created by SOPR students using mixed media.

Reflections on first year: A student conversation

In this conversation, Stella and Lily - two students who just completed their first year of the SOPR program - reflect on their experiences so far. Stella is a Kachin activist from northern Burma/Myanmar researching decolonial and community led peace-building and Indigenous self-governance and self-determination practices. Lily is a queer youth climate activist, writer, and researcher whose research and activism centers youth engagement in climate-decision making, the mental health and emotional impacts of the climate crisis, and developing alternative policy, governance, and community frameworks to address the impacts of the polycrises from a climate and sustainability perspective.

SOPR Community of Practice: Community art-making practice and potluck

On Wednesday, April 9th, we held the final Community of Practice (CoP) event for the 2024-2025 academic year. Thirteen SOPR students and faculty came together, both in person and virtually, at the J.C. Taylor Nature Center in the Arboretum. We are so grateful to our friends at the Arboretum for providing this wonderful space for the SOPR community to gather again! This space feels like our unofficial clubhouse!

First Year Reflections on the Individual Development Plan

Hello, salut, ciao, my name is Maria DiDanieli and I am a first year student in the Social Practice and Transformational Change (SOPR) program. I would like to invite you to join me in this video story about the Individual Development Plan, or IDP, that we are asked to create in this program.

Practicing conservation differently: Reflections of a PhD candidate on a visit to the proposed National Urban Park in Windsor

Written by Allison Bishop (she/her), a third-year doctoral candidate in the SOPR program and is the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership Manager. Allison’s doctoral work is focused on helping to deepen decolonial change within the conservation sector in Canada.

SOPR Community of Practice “Methods Show and Tell”

On Friday, November 15th we held the first Community of Practice (CoP) event of the 2024-2025 academic year...

Introducing Saba Safdar, New SOPR Program Director

Saba Safdar is an Iranian-born scholar whose formative years in Tehran were shaped by the turbulence of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, before she and her family made Canada home. Having lived most of her life in the Great White North, she embraces her Canadian identity, though she’ll admit her winter wardrobe is always a little too optimistic for the climate. Still, she secretly marvels at the breathtaking beauty of a Canadian winter.

Decolonizing the place narrative of Guelph: A PhD student’s experience

In my city of Guelph, Indigenous histories and presence have long been erased from public landmarks and heritage markers. The story of Guelph’s founding is that upon a ceremonial felling of a maple tree on April 23rd, 1827, John Galt, the first superintendent of the Canada Company established Guelph as a city. While he did not spend much time in Guelph, John Galt’s name is prominent in city spaces. Often untold are the histories of the Neutral, who were the first known Indigenous people to live in what is now Guelph, and the Mississaugas, who stewarded the land after the Neutrals dispersed due to wars. The Haudenosaunee also shared this land prior to Guelph’s founding. In learning and sharing about these histories of my city, I seek to recognize Indigenous presence in the current day.

Hello and welcome! A message from the 2024-2025 SOPR Community of Practice Facilitators

The days are getting shorter, the air at night is fresh, and there’s a sense of anticipation in the air. We find ourselves in the threshold between the glorious days of summer and the crisp cool of fall. That can only mean one thing. It must be back-to-school season!

Creating space for transformation in higher education

The SOPR program has created space for us in higher education. SOPR is made up of students with lived experience and identities, often undervalued or made invisible in academia. We are queer, non-binary, women, racialized, Indigenous, newcomers, international students, neurodivergent, disabled, parents, activists, artists, change makers, and students at the intersection of many identities. During our time in SOPR we draw from our experiences, our individual and collective praxis, and different ways of knowing to create new, practice-based knowledge and to reimagine academia, together.

Welcome to the SOPR Stories Blog!

Hello and welcome to SOPR Stories, the student-led blog for the Social Practice and Transformational Change doctoral program at the University of Guelph.