Looking back one year ago: A Place Like Home symposium
Reflections on creating a space for students to connect and learn together.
Last year, on November 15th, 2023, the Hey Neighbour Collective co-sponsored an all-day student research symposium alongside the Simon Fraser University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Departments of Gerontology and Urban Studies.
The event was titled A Place Like Home, to reflect the socio-political and cultural makings of home and community. The symposium focused on the community and housing nexus, which addresses the social connections, well-being, and sense of belonging that is integral to homes.
We would also like to extend special thanks to Community Housing Canada and the generous support from Dr. Yushu Zhu.
A platform for student work
The motivation for this event stemmed from a desire for opportunities to present the student research developed within HNC which lies at the intersection of community and housing. This idea developed and broadened to a wider call for abstracts and artwork across BC’s academic institutions. We wanted to include creative expressions of home and community to enrich our discussions.
Ultimately, months of planning resulted in a dynamic all-day event featuring two keynote presentations, a community art exhibition, and 14 graduate student presenters from SFU, UBC, and UNBC. Speakers represented interdisciplinary backgrounds from geography, sociology, urban planning, landscape architecture, public policy, gerontology, and urban studies.
Take a look at the full agenda, below.
We successfully hosted over 100 attendees from academic and industry communities. The overwhelming interest and support for the event led us all to feel the importance of creating opportunities for connection and learning from one another. In addition to seeking a platform to share their work, it was clear that the student presenters were also looking for forms of connection.
Summary of presentations
The symposium had a total of four panels for 16 presenters. Panels were categorized into three major themes: (1) Enacting a Right to Housing. Presentations here addressed the right to safe, adequate housing for different communities experiencing varying levels of housing insecurity in Canada and BC. (2) Housing Policy Limits & Innovations: As the title suggests, speakers focused on the boundaries of housing governance concerning different issues like urban displacement, improving air quality, and zoning. (3) Community Building & Collective Living, featured presentations that discussed ways of achieving a more collective approach to housing by way of co-operative housing; and a community-based approach to understanding a sense of home.
The Q&A sessions that followed each panel were filled with thoughtful questions and lively discussions. It was great to witness the enthusiasm shared between the presenters and attendees to learn and connect with one another.
We recently reached out to one of our keynote speakers, Dr. Samantha Thompson, and a couple of our student presenters, Richard Stanley and Ashley Wilkinson, to ask about their experience at the symposium.
Dr. Samantha Thompson presented her research which engages with feminist care theory to explore how care is experienced and enacted by tenants in the context of ongoing housing crises in Seattle, USA. She reflected:
“I really appreciated the thoughtful intention that went into organizing this symposium and the breadth of fantastic research that was shared by presenters. The event was special in that it both focused on housing research through a variety of approaches and showcased student work. I was grateful for the opportunity to join the event and to think alongside everyone who participated: many thanks to the organizers for creating such a wonderful space.”
Samantha Thompson, keynote speaker
SFU Urban Studies graduate student, Richard Stanley, presented his research about forced displacement and demovictions in the Metrotown area of Burnaby. He shared that since the symposium:
“I defended my thesis and obtained my M.Urb. I was interviewed by the Burnaby Now about my research but the article has yet to be published”
Richard Stanley, speaker
UNBC Health Sciences PhD candidate, Ashley Wilkinson, presented her research about the overrepresentation of Black homelessness in Canada. Her research not only highlighted the under-studied nature of this topic but also the notable lack of research findings in Northern areas of British Columbia. In her recent reflection, she reiterated this point:
“There are some great things happening outside of the Lower Mainland, and I think it’s valuable to extend invitations to those researchers as well!”
Ashley Wilkinson, speaker
Artwork within and beyond research
Outside of the conference rooms where presentations were held, we set up a community art gallery and a mobile library table for attendees and passersby to enjoy. In the adjacent Teck Gallery, students and community members from UBC, SFU, and York University displayed artwork dealing with the symposium’s theme.
The art exhibition intended to demonstrate the importance of personal expressions or explorations of the meaning of home and community, outside of academic research. (See a list of artists in the full agenda, above.)
The mobile library also received popular attention. People perused through book titles and students could take out books on the spot. We are especially grateful to librarian assistant, Jillian Wertzberger, whose support and enthusiasm made this possible.
A few of the displays from City in Colour Collective and SFU Geography graduate student Marina Chavez were a direct output of their research projects. Both were standout examples of integrating creative expression into a qualitative exploration of home and community-making.
City in Colour Collective is a team of researchers, urban planners, and artists who met at SFU’s urban studies program, before creating an urban consultancy cooperative based in Surrey, B.C. Their research project titled Growing Roots, used art-based methods to explore barriers to accessing adequate, affordable, and long-term housing in Surrey with government-assisted refugees. City in Colour shared the direction of their research in the past year:
“During the summer of 2024, we showcased our study in our first-ever exhibit at the Black Arts Centre in Surrey. The exhibition attracted significant attention, including media coverage from Surrey Now-Leader (“Growing Roots: Art Exhibit Showcases Refugee Struggles in Surrey” ) and The Tyee (“For Refugees in Surrey, a Harrowing Search for Housing”). Finally, we secured funding from the Real Estate Foundation of BC (REFBC) to conduct a second stage of the project, building on our earlier work to produce Growing Roots: Refugee-Centric Housing Solutions in Metro Vancouver.”
Learn more about Growing Roots here.
Marina Chavez’s master’s thesis, “Home Happens Anyway: belongings and home in Vancouver’s SRO Hotel,” was a deep ethnographic study of home-making in SROs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her thesis project also featured an interactive workshop with SRO tenants who designed and crafted numerous playing cards for the Mexican card game, Lotería. The cards were arranged into a beautiful display at the symposium (photo below).
Read and learn about Marina’s thesis here.
Why community and housing matters
Our housing landscapes structure how we navigate the city and form social connections. The material realities of housing insecurity are inevitably straining the capacity to form meaningful social connections, threatening to create even lonelier places to live. Research at this nexus of housing and community advocates to better understand the makings of our surroundings, and how they can mutually strengthen access to housing and community.
