Vancouver Island University invites applicants for a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Human Dimensions of Sustainability and Resilience. Tier 2 Chairs are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. This CRC will aid VIU in achieving the Health, Resilience and Well-being and Resilient Island and Rural Regions foci of the Strategic Research Plan.

Sustainability is a core value at Vancouver Island University. An inherently interdisciplinary topic of study, it also enables the convergence and collaboration of faculty in a number of disciplines. This Canada Research Chair will develop a highly interdisciplinary program of research that brings together the insights from disciplines in the social sciences such as sociology, psychology, geography, and leisure management to understand the human dimensions of environmental sustainability and community resilience. Through collaborative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, this CRC will contribute greater insights on how human knowledge, actions, processes and interactions are influenced and informed by natural and cultural systems and places. Potential areas of study may include, but are not limited to, interactions of humans and natural/cultural environments, environmental psychology, conservation, sustainable design and development, community and regional resilience and social innovation.