Speaker: Jennifer Bonnell, History, York U, Wednesday Talk: March 18, 2026, 2pm-4pm, Faculty Club and Zoom – hybrid
March 18 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Speaker: Jennifer Bonnell, History, York U
Title: “Place and People at the Margins: A History of Toronto’s Don River Valley”
Abstract: In this richly illustrated talk, environmental historian Jennifer Bonnell will walk us through the history of the Don Valley as a “place at the edges” of the evolving city. Moving from the straightening of the lower river in the 1880s to the recent work to transform the river mouth, she will highlight competing visions for the valley as a sink for wastes, a corridor for transportation, a respite for recreation and reflection, and a refuge for marginalized human populations.
Bio: Jennifer Bonnell is a historian of public memory and environmental change in nineteenth and twentieth-century Canada. She is the author or co-editor of four books, including Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia, published in 2023 by the Royal BC Museum, and Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley, published by the University of Toronto Press in 2014. Her current book project, Foragers of a Modern Countryside: Honeybees, Environmental Change, and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region, will be published by the University of Washington Press’s Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series. Jennifer is a Professor in the Department of History at York.
The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/BEG9KjC5GK
The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.
If you have any questions, please contact the organizer, Linda Hutcheon at l.hutcheon@utoronto.ca.
