Itinerary:

Dinner with the speaker 6:30 p.m.
Public presentation 8:00 p.m.

The rapid growth of cities around the world has been accompanied by an equally rapid depopulation of rural areas and small towns. In many areas – from Japan to the rural USA, outback Australia to the Canadian prairie west – rural residents are feeling connected from a new global economic and social order that appears to have little place for them. The resulting rural protests are reshaping national and international politics, but solutions remain scarce. This talk explores the reality of rural transformation and considers options to rebuild the demographic and economic foundation of these regions.

Speaker’s biography
Dr. Ken Coates is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan campus. Ken was raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, and has long-standing professional and personal interests in Aboriginal rights, northern development, northern Canadian history, science, technology and society, and Japan Studies.

Ken has worked with Aboriginal peoples and organizations and with government agencies responsible for Indigenous affairs across Canada and in New Zealand and Australia. He assisted with Aboriginally-themed documentaries produced by Northern Native Broadcasting Yukon, assisted with land claims research and participated in a variety of national and international collaborations, including serving on the Research Advisory Committee of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He is the Director of the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development, which provides regionally-relevant research focused on northern Saskatchewan and delivers a community-based Master’s program on Northern Governance and Development. He is the Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s research project on Aboriginal Peoples and the Natural Resource economy.

Ken appears regularly on television and radio, largely in association with his work on Aboriginal issues, northern Canada and post-secondary education. His opinion pieces have been published in newspapers and magazines across Canada.

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