Learning about urban landmarks with Kishore Seetharaman
HNC’s research assistant Kishore tells us why he dove into the field of environmental gerontology and how he journeyed from Chennai to Canada.
How did you learn about the Hey Neighbour Collective?
I’ve worked with a couple of members of HNC in the past. In particular, Dr. Atiya Mahmood is an SFU research lead in HNC and also a faculty member at the Department of Gerontology, where I’m doing my PhD.
During the early stages of the pandemic, I worked closely with Dr. Mahmood on a project for Employment and Social Development Canada. We presented options to the government for innovative housing and housing-related supports for older adults. At the time, they were interested in receiving information that would inform their policy directions around seniors housing. They were keen to know what was already being done, best practices, and how they might integrate these practices into their policies. We looked at a few different housing innovations that specifically met the needs of older adults.
Dr. Mahmood mentioned that there was a project the Collective was working on to prepare a policy brief that, while not exclusively targeted to meet older adults’ housing needs, was more broadly focused and aligned with the Collective’s overarching goals. I applied to this position because I was interested in engaging in more applied work, and it certainly checked those boxes! It’s a nice, synergistic approach to the work that I’m doing.
What drew you to the field of gerontology?
It seems like people can approach graduate studies from two different angles: you either delve deeper into your primary area of study, or in my case, you make a pivot! I studied architecture for my bachelor’s degree, and worked at a design firm for a year after graduation. But there had always been a part of my connection to architecture that was motivated by a research lens. I was interested in questions that you just don’t get to engage in when you’re an architectural designer. You often receive briefs and prototype design solutions that aren’t always creatively stimulating or interesting.
I began reconnecting with my initial instincts to engage in architectural research (more than design itself), and that led me to a field called “environmental psychology,” which can be traced back to the 60s and 70s in the US. I deeply resonated with the thinking that was at the core of that field, so I undertook a Master’s program in Environmental Psychology. I was required to identify a thesis topic, and there were several options to choose from. The one that really stuck out to me was environmental gerontology.
From a personal standpoint, I had witnessed my grandparents aging and observed how they were often in environments that were at odds with their needs and activity patterns. That had always been in the back of my mind, so I thought it would be nice to hone in on that. My Master’s thesis focused on urban design for people living with dementia. I became interested in specifically designing dementia-inclusive neighbourhoods and communities.
The prospect of pursuing a PhD afterwards came up organically! It was through my thesis that I met my now-advisor–his areas of interest and research aligned with my background. From my bachelor’s to master’s and now PhD, it has been a circuitous, organic process! Nothing was super planned, things just fell into place piece by piece.
What is your PhD focus?
I built my dissertation around the questions that I raised in my master’s thesis. My PhD is a scaled-up version of that study, which looked at how people living with dementia perceive neighbourhood landmarks. The spatial challenges they experience in the world have quite a bit to do with a lack of landmarks or loss of them; a lack of distinctiveness in their environments can exacerbate episodes of disorientation. During my master’s, I looked specifically at how they intuit landmark characteristics from urban environments.
In my dissertation, I want to pull back and look more broadly at how people living with dementia specifically interact with their everyday walking environment. Like, for example, how they shape their walking practices according to the constraints of their neighbourhoods. And their awareness of changes that have occurred from their walking habits over time, after being diagnosed with dementia. I want to be able to disseminate the experiences and knowledge they shared with me to municipal planners in the Metro Vancouver region to help them address their cities’ goals of achieving dementia-inclusive communities.
It’s a little bit of an exploratory study, but I’m interested in the applied value of this work. I want to see how citizen knowledge and expertise can be valued and used as a resource in guiding accessibility and inclusion initiatives in local government.
What has it been like journeying from your home in Chennai to North America?
I am originally from India–all of my family still live there, including my grandmoms. My grandmom on my mom’s side lives in Bombay, a big metropolitan area in western India, and my grandmom on my dad’s side lives in southern India.
I lived in Chennai, in southern India, for most of my life, and my parents grew up there as well. It’s one of the main metropolitan cities in India, perhaps less well known than New Delhi. I also spent a few years in the Middle East: my dad used to work there. I moved to the US for my master’s in 2016 and came to BC in 2018.
I moved to the US during a very strange time. It was the year of the US presidential election, so it was extremely intense. I attended Cornell University in upstate New York. I was told by a graduate student that my master’s would be like running a sprint, while a PhD is more like a marathon. It was so fast, there was almost no time for respite! But luckily, the campus is in such a nature-rich area of the region, so it was not very difficult to access nature (much like Vancouver). It was my first time living in an area with a real winter, which was a novel experience for me. I remember going out in a blizzard one time, and while it was a bit precarious, it was thrilling! It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
What does it mean to visit your family these days?
Shortly after I moved to the US, my parents transitioned to congregate housing with other older adults, in Coimbatore, a city in southern India. They’re surrounded by people who also have family abroad and kids who are in graduate school, so it’s become this shared experience they have with their friends. It’s neat to see them bonding over children who are doing graduate studies abroad. They often tell me about the stories of their friends, “this one crossed this milestone,” or “that one started a postdoc.” It’s nice, because it’s become part of their parlance and they’re able to participate. It’s like the connective tissue that bonds them with others in their community.
The last time I was able to visit my family was in 2023, but I’m hoping to be back later this year (2025). I’ll have finished my program by then and it’ll be a nice pause point before I move onto the next chapter of my life. Visiting my family gives me a chance to share space and time with them, even if we’re not doing big outings or adventures. I think the older I get, it’s dawning on me that the little things carry more meaning. I’m not as particular as needing things to be marked by celebrations or doing things out of the ordinary. The mundane becomes more comforting and meaningful.
