Rebecca Peterson
Environmental Studies
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies
Tel: 416-736-5252
Fax: 416-736-5679
E-mail: rebecca@yorku.ca
Biography
Rebecca is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and founding editor of Women and Environments magazine. She is a member of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Environmental Design Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and was formerly a member of the Advisory Board for the Centre for Feminist Research at York University.
Research Interests
Professor Rebecca Peterson’s research interests deal with issues of campus sustainability at York, including issues of indoor air quality as they relate to healthy and sustainable buildings. With Rob Macdonald, she focuses upon the wider issues surrounding healthy and sustainable buildings (i.e. buildings that work well for the inhabitants in addition to having a positive environmental impact in terms of energy conservation, greening of landscapes, green roofs, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, etc.).
Professor Peterson teaches a course on facilitation in environmental studies, and is a practitioner of an approach to meeting management known as “open space technology.” This approach, developed by Harrison Owen, has been used in many arenas to bring diverse groups of people together to address problems of common concern. She is also interested in action research on bringing people together to work on environmental issues across boundaries.
Selected Publications
“Women, Environments and Health: Overview and Strategic Directions for Research and Action.” In Shahi et. al. (eds.). International Perspectives in Environment and Health. New York: Springer, 1996.
“Women’s environments and their health,” American Psychological Association Conference, Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors in Women’s Health: Creating an Agenda for the 21st Century, Washington, D.C., 1994.
