OUR TEAM
Jutta Gutberlet
Jutta is a Professor in the Department of Geography, at the University of Victoria, and the director of the Community-based Research Laboratory (CBRL), created in 2006. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biology at the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) and her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Jutta has worked for the United Nations (Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and in Ecuador) and for a non-governmental research institute (CEDEC) in São Paulo. She has also worked for the University of Tübingen/Germany and the University of Newcastle/Australia.
Jutta’s current research interests are on sustainable livelihoods and community development with a specific focus on participation, co-management and poverty reduction strategies. She is involved in research on waste governance and participatory forms of resource management, particularly in the global South, and she teaches in the fields of Social and Development Geography. For more information, please visit her website.
Maeva Gauthie
Maeva Gauthier is a PhD Candidate in Geography and Research Assistant for the UNESCO Chair in Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education.
For her PhD, she is using Participatory Video as a tool to engage Arctic communities around global change, such as plastics in the environment and climate change and what it means for the youth in Tuktoyaktuk. She is passionate about ocean sciences, coastal communities, communications, and filmmaking. Originally from Quebec, she moved to Victoria to complete a MSc in Marine Ecology (Univ. of Victoria) after a BSc in biology (Univ. of Quebec in Montreal). Her interest for the poles started with expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic in 2009, and she has been going back to the Arctic multiple times ever since. She is also the co-founder of Live It, which provides K-12 online educational content about nature. For more information, visit Maeva's website.
Lusungu Kayani
Lusungu Kayani was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and grew up in the U.S. She received a Master's in Urban Planning from New York University where she was a David Bohnett Fellow in Public Service. Prior to this, Lusungu studied International Affairs at Columbia University. As an urban planner and international development practitioner, Lusungu has experience working with city and local governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She served as an advisor with international organizations such as the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat), Vital Strategies, UNICEF and most recently, with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Her work focuses on the role cities play in ensuring an equitable and sustainable future for our planet, especially through the lens of health and well-being. In recent projects, she has worked to better understand how urban environments specifically support the health and development of children and adolescents.
Lusungu's research interests are focused on the role the informal sector plays in the circular economy, particularly how central the sector is to the development of long-term strategies and roadmaps in rapidly urbanizing cities in Africa. She wants to investigate the economic and ecological contributions of the informal sector and document their efforts through her work. She is also passionate about connecting the opportunities for improved health and well-being of youth through innovations in waste management.
John Mba-Wuni Wuntah
Wuni graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Ghana in 2020. He is interested in food waste recovery and the circular economy processes. His interest in the circular economy started after his involvement with the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, at the University of Ghana as a research assistant. Wuni’s desire is to critically explore how institutions of higher learning in developing countries, as model societies, can lead the quest for a circular economy at different levels and in varying contexts.
Bita Ebrahimi
We all deserve to live a decent life. I started to develop this concern, specifically with regard to the places we are inhabiting, as I have learned to observe more carefully. This is why I spent almost a decade studying and researching the cities as the places that encompass our lives and shape the quality of that.
Born in Isfahan, Iran, Bita curiously chose to gain her bachelor’s in Urban Planning from the Art University of Isfahan. Then, she pursued her MA in Urban Design at Art University, Tehran. Since 2016, she has been a member of the “Virtual Reality and Emerging Technologies Lab” at the Art University of Tehran.
After years of studying and working, I came to the belief that participatory approaches are the most advantageous in helping us to further the edges of our knowledge. In doing so, technology, specifically VR, has a lot to offer to our research in facilitating the ways of participation. Now, as a masters student in the Geography department at UVIC, delving deeper into the use of tech, I am utilizing the potential of VR to understand waste pickers’ daily life in their workplaces to increase awareness and contribute to the betterment of their lives.
Joseph Minor
Joseph Minor, a master's student in our Community-based Research Lab, is passionate about food waste and will be exploring the community dimensions of waste reduction strategies using a community based research approach. This includes exploring the ways in which community groups actively participate in waste reduction and diversion techniques like separating recyclable materials or recovering food waste. Public and private institutions have the great opportunity to promote a localized circular economy by creating avenues and markets for the valuable materials in the waste stream. Further, using community based research highlights the ways in which we as academics can break down the 'ivory tower' and make the knowledge production processes more accessible. Joe comes from Connecticut, US where he got his bachelor degree in German and Geography while working to recover and redistribute food from university dining services to local communities in need. Green, local initiatives are key to creating a sustainable, more connected community!
Danae Zachari
Danae is working towards her MA in Human Geography, and has a strong interest in critical and de-colonial approaches to research and community engagement, with a focus on health equity and environmental justice. Danae is especially interested in critical pedagogy, co-production of knowledge and Participatory Action Research approaches.
For her graduate research, she is working with the Koforidua Zongo community in Ghana to explore factors that foster sustainable livelihoods and enable individuals and the community to thrive. The study aims to capture the material, cultural and relational aspects that provide social cohesion and promote health and wellbeing. Danae plans to engage participants through the use of semi-structured conversations and photo-narratives, to learn from their lived experiences and perspectives on what promotes quality of life.
Chloe Spinks
Chloe is working towards her degree in Human Geography, with a minor in Professional Communications. Growing up in Dubai, UAE, Chloe has always been curious about cultural intersections and global power structures, ultimately leading her to pursue research opportunities with the CBRL. Chloe has a goal of making research as accessible and reader-friendly as possible in order to evoke meaningful and culturally relevant change. Her work with synthesizing waste governance research into plain language to reach a broad range of stakeholders has opened her up to the field of planning and sustainability, where she plans to explore a career in the future. In her final years at UVic, Chloe hopes to continue learning as she goes, asking questions, and above all, listening to valuable knowledge from those who have traditionally been excluded from topics of waste and people’s right to the city
Jemma Eason
Jemma is currently perusing her BSC in economics, BA in environmental studies and minor in global development studies at UVIC. Her particular interest in the circular economy started from a ted talk she watched when she was 17. Since then her passion for sustainability has grown and she has worked for several local and international groups with the same ideals. Jemma is currently the administrator for this website.
Sam Rae Harriss
Sam is nearing the end of her undergraduate degree double majoring in Human Geography and Political Science, and is currently completing her honors thesis under the supervision of Jutta Gutberlet. Her studies, personal travels, and specific interests in sustainability, power relations, workers’ rights, and planning have inspired her honors research, studying community-based waste management solutions in Turkey. Within her research Sam aims to focus on issues of labor rights, circular economy, and participatory governance and planning in order to explore solutions. Sam is looking forward to continuing to learn about the multifaceted and complex issue of waste management and excited about contributing to the research being done in the Community-Based Research Laboratory.
POST-DOC & research associates
2023-2024
Carolina Carvalho
Carolina has a PhD in Environmental Planning (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Brazil), with a research period at the Royal Institute of Technology (Tekniska Kunliga högskolan - KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. She did a postdoc research using Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) applied to urban governance, at the Public Health Faculty (University of Sao Paulo) and Aalto University, Espoo, Finland. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Birmingham (UK), in 2022-2023.
Currently, she is a researcher at the Institute of Environment and Energy, of São Paulo University and founder of the Comunidades Vivas - Mapeamento Participativo, an initiative that brings participatory mapping as a tool for urban planning improvements, focusing on citizen engagement for better and healthy cities www.comunidadesvivas.com.br.
Ana Maria Castro
Ana is a PhD student in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo (USP) and a visiting researcher at the CBRL. She is currently studying the integration of waste pickers in waste management and its contribution to a just transition to the circular economy. She is an environmental engineer with an MSc in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation. She has experience in projects about household waste management, selective collection, environmental education and the inclusion of waste pickers. She is currently a researcher in the Solid Waste Study and Research Group (NEPER-USP) and a member of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) Young Professionals Group.
Ana Maria Rodrigues Costa de Castro
ResearchGate | LinkedIn | ORCID | Lattes
Charles Amartey
Charles was born and raised in Accra, a city known for its intriguing blend of cultures. He was always interested in the ways that art might be incorporated into many contexts and how different artistic concepts may coexist in one work. As an artist, he creates fictitious and abstract works of art by fusing scientific concepts with artistic expression. His work also emphasizes the great diversity of life on Earth as well as the beauty and intricacy of ecosystems. depicting a range of species in his artwork to highlight how all life is intertwined, from microbes to plants and animals. displaying at Ghanaian museums and galleries and in the United Kingdom, respectively. He attended the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts. He was also a member of the BlaxTARLINES Community, a Kumasi, Ghana-based incubator for contemporary experimental art. Charles, a Ghanaian bio artist, is presently pursuing an MFA at the University of Victoria.
Kosar Movahedi
Kosar Movahedi is a visual artist and communications designer.
Kosar holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC and a BSc in Architecture from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Their work has resulted in solo and group exhibitions
in Canada, Iran and the UK.
Angela Hinostroza
Angela Hinostroza holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication Arts and Sciences with a focus on Advertising from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Over the past six years, she has worked for the Canada Peru Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada, focusing on communication and marketing strategies to strengthen the ties between Canada and Peru. She has also actively participated in various art exhibitions that promote sustainable concepts and is happy to be involved with the CBRLab projects.
Fabio Luiz Cardozo
Fabio, resident of the East Zone of São Paulo, Historian, Master's student in Sustainability at the University of São Paulo (USP). He brings extensive experiences in capacity building and technical advice for grassroots and community groups focused on cooperatives, solidarity economy and entrepreneurship with priority for waste pickers. He has worked in public bodies with the implementation of Municipal Selective Collection programs (City Halls of São Paulo, Maua, Taboão da Serra and Itapeva), with private companies (Braskem, FESP/SEBRAE), with NGOs (Unisol Brasil, Instituto GEA, Instituto ECOAR, I&T, GAIA, Coopcent-ABC) and in research projects (CIDA funded Projeto Brasil Canada (FEUSP/Agencia CIDA). He is currently a researcher at FIPE (Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas) in São Paulo, modeling the socio-technical project for the Consortia funded by Caixa Econômica Federal -CEF, in the Mogiana region of SP and Oeste Mineiro-CIAS. He has worked together with PUC / SP university on a project with the homeless population and autonomous waste pickers in the central region of SP. He is a member of the Cooperativa Mãos Verdes of technicians and educators and a co-director of consulting firm LC-Consultoria Socioambiental. Fabio is currently developing his MA thesis at the University of Sao Paulo. He is developing a study of post-consumer plastic packaging that is not recyclable with several waste picker cooperatives in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.
Sayed Mohammad Nazim Uddin
Dr. Uddin is currently working as a Visiting Research Associate in the CBRL-UVic and managing research projects in Bangladesh on 'Waste and Sanitation Hazards in Rohingya Refugee camps' and 'Livelihood and Health Status of Waste Pickers in Dhaka.' He has also been teaching as a Sessional Lecturer at UVic's Geography since 2017. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Jutta Gutberlet during 2016 and 2018 and involved in several research projects in the fields of Environmental Health. Moreover, he is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh. AUW is the first of its kind: a fully independent regional institution dedicated to women's education and leadership development—global in outlook (American Style liberal arts and science) but rooted in the context and aspirations of the people of Asia. With an International Research Funding from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) International France, Dr. Nazim completed his Ph.D. from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), China. Additionally, he held Research Project Manager and performed graduate supervision and mentoring during his Ph.D. tenure at USTB. He has more than 15 years of experience in research, teaching, scientific supervision, and mentoring, development, and implementation. Over 40 scientific peer-reviewed journal articles, international conference proceedings, technical reports and guidelines, policy briefs, and compendium have already been published by him in the fields of Environmental Health, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Waste Management, Wastewater Treatment, Humanitarian Science and Engineering.
Pre-2023
Leandro Giatti
Leandro Giatti is an associate professor at the School of Public Health – University of São Paulo (USP). He is a biologist and PhD in Public Health. Giatti has international expertise with sustainability and public health, health promotion, and participatory research approaches. His experience characterizes through interdisciplinary studies and with the main efforts dedicated to socioenvironmental vulnerable groups. He is a member of the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP, and associate editor of the journal Ambiente & Sociedade (SCIELO). In his academic research projects, he has advised thesis and dissertations of graduate students and also has supervised post-doctoral partners.
Crystal Tremblay
Crystal completed her MA in 2007 and PhD in 2013 with the CBRL, working as a Research Assistant with the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management project in Brazil and other local projects with the binning community in Victoria and Vancouver. Her work has been strongly rooted in the investigation of innovations in community-driven development, participatory governance and public policy related to waste, sanitation and water with informal and underserved communities in urban Canada, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The integration of creative visual methodologies, and use of participatory video in particular, has been at the heart of her research and engagement approach. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Special Advisor on Community Engaged Scholarship at the University of Victoria. She has published widely on topics related to community university research partnerships, training in community-based research, social innovation and participatory policy in water and waste governance. for more information please visit her website: www.crystaltremblay.com
Julian S. Yates
Dr Julian S. Yates is currently a Lecturer in Human Geography at Monash University in Australia. After completing is MA in the CBRL at UVic, he completed a PhD and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at UBC. His MA research in the CBRL explored how organic (food) waste recycling in Diadema (São Paolo) could be upheld by cooperative relationships among recyclers cooperatives, urban gardeners, local residents, and supportive municipal policies and framework. Using urban political ecology, Julian explore the opportunities and constraints for recycling urban amenities in ways that produce more just and sustainable urban environments. His research was published in Environment and Planning A and the Journal of Development Studies.
Since conducting his MA research, Julian has focused on the production and circulation of Indigenous and environmental knowledges, particularly in contexts of rural development and contestation over environmental resources. He received a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australia Reseach Council for a project on Indigenous Water Futures, and he is a co-investigator for an inter-disciplinary and industry partnership research project on mapping community organization-supported re-use for a better understanding of the circular economy. Julian’s published work can be found on Academia.
Megan King
Megan first joined the Community-based Research Lab, in early 2009, through UVic’s work study program. Her duties at the time involved data collection for the Global Waste Database project. From September of that year, she continued with the lab as a graduate student, joining the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management project. Within the scope of that project, her research took her to Ribeirão Pires, Brazil, where she conducted a case study of the CooperPires recycling cooperative to evaluate the GHG emission reduction achieved through their work. That study can be found here in English and here in Portuguese. Since graduating with an MA from the Department of Geography (UVic) in 2012, she worked as a research assistant (Earth Observation Department, National Institute for Space Research – OBT/INPE) and then as a freelance editor and Portuguese-English translator while living in Brazil. In the spring of 2019, she relocated to Stirling, Scotland, and now works at a hospital as a patient administrator.
Emma Talor
Emma is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) and a full Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (MCIP) with expertise in land use planning in rural, resource and small island landscapes. Her areas of interest include rural communities, water governance, resource management, active transportation, and parks and protected areas. Emma graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Arts (Geography) in 2004 and a Master of Arts (Geography) in 2008 focusing on community-based waste management on small islands. As a member of the Community-Based Research Lab from 2005-08, Emma worked on projects related to waste recovery and homeless populations in Victoria, BC and Sao Paulo, Brazil and sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica. Emma currently works for the Capital Regional District (British Columbia, Canada) and holds certificates from the International Association of Public Participation, the National Charrette Institute, and is enrolled in the Urban Design Certificate program at Simon Fraser University.
ALUMNI
Andre Redivo
Andre is a geographer who did his undergraduate at the University of Brasilia. He has a strong background in GIS, spatial database management and spatial analysis. He worked as a consultant for several UN agencies such as UNDP, UNESCO and PAHO, as well as in the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil and in the Brazilian Ministries of Environment, Tourism, Transport and Justice. His work aimed to support decision makers within the Brazilian government through the development of applications and methodologies based on open source software in order to subsidize the elaboration of public policies. Currently he is a Masters student at the University of Victoria, interested in the waste pickers cooperatives and the global carbon market.
Abdolzaher (Zaher) Ghezeljeh
Abdolzaher or Zaher grew up in Iran and moved to Victoria to pursue his Masters in Geography with Prof. Jutta Gutberlet. He has always enjoyed learning about ecology and community planning, however became particularly attracted with urban agriculture during his master’s degree at the University of Allameh Tabatabai in Iran. Moreover, his bachelor and master’s degrees were urban and regional planning in Guilan and Allameh Tabatabi Universities respectively. For his Masters with Jutta Gutberlet, he will continue urban agriculture in community and city in order to improving sustainability of the cities.
Dare Sholanke
Dare Sholanke is from Nigeria. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Management and Toxicology (B.EMT) from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is currently developing his Masters thesis in the department of Geography. His research interests include waste management, resource management, environmental pollution, and land use planning. He is working on a case study mapping waste governance with waste pickers (binners) in Vancouver and Montreal.
Katlyn Keats
Katlyn is extremely passionate about the environment and the ocean. Growing up in Winnipeg, it has always been her dream to move to the west coast to pursue a career in marine conservation. After completing her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science with a focus in Conservation and Biodiversity at the University of Manitoba in 2014, she spent some time in Kenya and Indonesia volunteering in various community outreach and conservation projects. She has a passion for travelling to new places, being outdoors and exploring with her dog.
For her Masters in Geography, she focused on the issue of plastic waste along coastal regions in the Global South. She worked with communities to create more awareness around the issues associated with plastic in the marine environment, and organized beach clean-ups, with the aim to drive policy change in those areas. She is also a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration and Surfrider Foundation here on Vancouver Island.
Christine Todd
Christine is a Pakeha (settler), New Zealander, mum and PhD student in critical human geography. She has lived and worked in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, California, and Vancouver Island on the traditional territories of the Ngati Whatua, Yugambeh, Kumeyaay, Lekwungen and Wsanec peoples. Her research draws on Indigenous theory to reconsider the role of geography in the structured repossession of Indigenous lands, resources and cultures. She is also a research assistant in the GIF (Geographic Indigenous Futures) lab, looking at Indigenous actions and responses to Climate Change.
Juliana Amauchi
Before coming to Canada and settled in Victoria to pursue further education at the University of Victoria, Juliana has completed her first degree in Nutrition in the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) with 5 years of working experience at her native country, Brazil. Juliana joined CBRL recently in 2018 as a research assistant while she continues to pursue her second bachelor degree in (BA)Geography. Because of her deep interest in waste management, sustainability of natural resources, and social justice, Juliana has been volunteering at the UVSS Food Bank & Free Store, as well as recently started to become engaged in events at the local Repair Cafe. After obtaining her current BA degree, Juliana plans to continue pursuing her passion for research in Geography by becoming a Masters student, with the research focus on advocating, promoting, and expanding the local Repair Cafe project to make it more accessible for the students and faculty members in the University of Victoria.
Alicia Fall
Alicia joined the CBRL in 2017 as a research assistant. She is working toward a BSc in Geography with a minor in Economics, at UVic. She has always had a passion for learning about human relationships with the environment and has been involved with various community-based initiatives. As a result of these experiences, she has taken particular interest in the management of water and waste resources. She spent the summer of 2014 working for Engineering and Environmental Services with the Cowichan Valley Regional District, gaining insight into some of the intense challenges facing Vancouver Island. In 2016 she worked with the POLIS Water Sustainability Project, as well as with the BC Housing Community Development program. In 2017 she volunteered at VerdEnergia, an agro-forestry restoration project in Costa Rica. Currently she coordinates the UVic Ecological Restoration Volunteer Network. She is keen to join the community of people working creatively for environmental and economic justice and resilience.
Hilary Ho
Hilary moved from Singapore to pursue her master’s in the department of anthropology at UVIC. During her fieldwork in the Island of Sumba and Flores in Indonesia she witnessed the health and social impacts caused by waste generated from gold and manganese mining. This made her critical of dominant political and economic structures and waste management.
As a member of the Community-based Research Laboratory (CBRL), Hilary advocates for alternative forms of resource distribution and responsible waste recovery through the circular economy. During her work at CBRL she will look at Binners (waste pickers) in Victoria. It is her goal to understand how the community contributes to resource recovery and to understand the challenges Binners face in their work. By working closely with Binners in Victoria, Hilary hopes to break down negative perceptions of Binners in order to attain a more equitable work environment.
Olivia Martin-Spisak
Olivia is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts in geography with a concentration in urban health and development and a minor in global development studies. She grew up in California and lived abroad in the Philippines and Belgium before moving to Victoria for university. Going forward she would like to pursue a career in grassroots and community-based development. She is interested in studies of political ecology, migration and refugees, feminist theory, and social justice. She is currently a work study student collaborating with the study on 'plastic waste and informal recycling' in the Community-based Research Lab.
Sasha Mosky
Sasha joined the CBRL in 2018 as a research assistant. She is working towards a double major in Environmental Studies and Geography with a concentration in Urban Health and Development. Her interests revolve around relationships between people and the environment and is particularly interested in sustainability and human/nature hybridity within cities. Sasha became interested in PSWM during an internship with New Delhi based NGO PRIA (Participatory Research in Asia) where she contributed to a study involving waste pickers and solid waste management. She is grateful for the opportunity to integrate this international experience with the CBRL team at UVic.
Ana Ramezani
Ana completed her undergraduate studies in Human Geography at Simon Fraser University. She joined the CBRL lab in 2017 to assist with research projects. Her research interests include health hazards associated with recycling and handling waste and ways to improve the health and safety of waste pickers.
