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University of Toronto

Established in 1827, the University of Toronto has one of the strongest research and teaching faculties in North America, presenting top students at all levels with an intellectual environment unmatched in depth and breadth on any other Canadian campus.

With more than 75,000 students across three campuses (St. George, Mississauga and Scarborough) and over 450,000 alumni active in every region of the world, U of T’s influence is felt in every area of human endeavour.

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A woman wearing a burka walks through a bird market as she holds her child in downtown Kabul in May after Taliban rulers ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Afghanistan a year after the Taliban occupation: An ongoing war on human rights

Ferdouse Asefi, University of Toronto

In the year since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, human rights abuses are off the charts, particularly towards women and ethnic minorities.
Global central banks, like the Bank of Canada, are considering their own digital currencies as a backstop to prepare for a future where cryptocurrency dethrones cash as king. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Central bank digital currencies could mean the end of democracy

Ori Freiman, University of Toronto

Central banks worldwide are racing to implement national digital currencies, yet democratic considerations are hardly discussed in public. This has to change.
Saralake Estates Mobile Home Park in Sarasota, Florida. Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Debunking stereotypes about mobile homes could make them a new face of affordable housing

Zachary Lamb, University of California, Berkeley; Jason Spicer, University of Toronto, and Linda Shi, Cornell University

Manufactured housing – the preferred name for what were once called mobile homes – has changed dramatically in recent decades. Three planning experts call for giving it a new look.
A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, in November 2019. Efforts to save the world’s disappearing species have largely failed so far. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

December global biodiversity summit at risk of failure

Justina C. Ray, University of Toronto

The so-called post-2020 global biodiversity framework is a nature counterpart to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, and will aim to curb the decline of nature by 2050.
A rare find — a fossil of Stanleycaris hirpex with the nervous system preserved. (Jean Bernard Caron/Royal Ontario Museum)

Three-eyed Cambrian fossils shed new light on arthropod head evolution

Joe Moysiuk, University of Toronto

The discovery of a fossil over 500 million years old reveals new information. Its brain and nervous system are remarkably preserved, filling in some gaps in what we know about arthropod evolution.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, plays with children in an early learning and child care centre in Brampton, Ont., March 28, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Canada’s child-care investment needs to advance climate change policy goals

Emis Akbari, University of Toronto and Isabelle Vinet, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Where new early learning and child-care programs are located, how they are designed, built and resourced, and what they teach can either add to the problem of climate change or help mitigate it.
In hackathons, people come together to build more extensive and cohesive datasets. (Shutterstock)

Hackathons should be renamed to avoid negative connotations

P. Alison Paprica, University of Toronto; Kimberlyn McGrail, University of British Columbia, and Michael J. Schull, University of Toronto

“Hackathons” can imply breaching security and privacy. To more accurately reflect their creative and constructive intent, they can be referred to instead as “datathons” or “code fests.”
Many caregivers were prevented from seeing and taking care of their loved ones in long-terms care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Caregivers were traumatized by COVID-19 public health and long-term care policies

Charlene Chu, University of Toronto and Vivian Stamatopoulos, Ontario Tech University

Family caregivers of residents in longterm care homes experienced a collective trauma as they were kept away from their loved ones during the pandemic. This isolation has long-ranging impacts.
Health-care workers in Toronto protest the Canadian truckers convoy last February that was against vaccine mandates. (Shutterstock)

Understanding why people reject science could lead to solutions for rebuilding trust

Aviva Philipp-Muller, Simon Fraser University; Richard Petty, The Ohio State University, and Spike W. S. Lee, University of Toronto

To communicate scientific findings that are relevant to the public, science communicators need to understand how to overcome attitudes that are anti-science.
OxyContin, an opioid drug heavily marketed by Purdue Pharma, is associated with billions of dollars of health-care costs in Canada related to the opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

$150M is not enough: Canada’s proposed Purdue Pharma settlement for opioid damages is paltry and won’t prevent future crises

Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, University of Toronto and Joel Lexchin, York University, Canada

The Purdue Pharma settlement is paltry compared to costs of the opioid crisis. Without major changes to pharma industry regulation, there is little reason to think a similar crisis won’t occur again.
Community vegetable gardens, such as this one in Pickering, Ont., support health and should be seen as part of the city’s food system. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

A prescription for health: City vegetable gardens produce more than just food

Sarah Elton, Toronto Metropolitan University and Donald C Cole, University of Toronto

Publicly accessible gardens are an essential part of our food system. It’s important for policymakers to understand that growing food in city gardens is central to health, food security and culture.
Child-care policy needs to be designed to ensure children have stable access to high-quality care. (Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)

Low-income families should not lose child-care subsidies while on parental leave

Samantha Burns, University of Toronto; Calpanaa Jegatheeswaran, University of Toronto; Michal Perlman, University of Toronto; Petr Varmuza, University of Toronto, and Sumayya Saleem, University of Toronto

Stable child care can protect kids in the face of major life stressors — so should subsidy policies.
Positive representations of higher-weight women exercising can counter the idealization of thin bodies that is common on social media, while cultivating health-promoting exercise behaviour. (Shutterstock)

Why social media ‘fitspiration’ can fail: Weight-inclusive fitness posts are more likely to motivate young women to exercise

Eva Pila, Western University and Madeline Wood, University of Toronto

Social media content that positively represents body size, shape and weight diversity may help to address the negative psychological effects of ‘fitspiration’ that depicts narrow body standards.
Jubilant sports fans flew the Canadian flag in 2019 after the NBA playoffs. Since then, the ‘freedom convoy’ has used the flag to try to represent their values. Has the symbolism of the flag changed? THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

Has the meaning behind the Canadian flag changed? — Podcast

Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation

What does it mean to be a settler of colour in Canada? Has the symbolism of the Canadian flag changed since the Ottawa convoy?
A new study on Canada’s affordability crisis has found that visible minorities have less access to affordable housing than whites in Canada. (Shutterstock)

Ethno-racial minorities in Canada have less access to affordable housing than white people

Kate Choi, Western University and Sagi Ramaj, University of Toronto

Ensuring visible minorities have equitable access to affordable housing is an important step in fulfilling the National Housing Strategy’s goal to make affordable housing available to all Canadians.
Smaller animals that feed lower in the food web might be at greater risk from microplastic exposure than larger ones. (Shutterstock)

Microplastics may pose a greater threat to the base of marine food webs

Garth A Covernton, University of Toronto; Hailey Davies, University of Victoria, and Kieran Cox, University of Victoria

We need to advance our understanding of the effects of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems, especially on small animals at the base of food webs that might be ingesting more of these particles.

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