Our Story

ESAC is a non-profit, federally incorporated, bilingual organization that aims to encourage research, publication, teaching, community-building, and innovation in environmental studies. We are the nation’s leading scholarly community of environmental researchers and educators.

Our History

During the 1993 Learned Societies Conference (what today is the annual ‘Congress of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences’), there were 37 sessions on the environment, distributed across several different disciplines and held by several different ‘Learned Societies’.

Following the conference, a group of sociology, philosophy, and environmental studies graduate students at York University identified the need for a research and education association dedicated to environmental studies.

ESAC first began meeting in June 1993. Within a year, the organization had been incorporated and had held its first meetings at the ‘Learned Societies Conference’ held in Calgary in 1994.

All of this was possible because of the volunteer, interim Board of Directors, as well as the in-kind and financial support of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and Graduate Environmental Studies Students’ Association. Within the next year, Alternatives was chosen as the official journal of ESAC and it published the first ESAC theme issue. The University of Waterloo then became the home of ESAC.

Since 2023, ESAC has come back to its roots and developed a partnership with York’s new Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, which is once again ESAC’s institutional home. We are also developing new partnerships with organizations that align with our values to advance social and environmental justice issues in Canada and abroad, especially in the context of complex political and ecological crises we are experiencing. These include: One Resilient Earth, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Common Earth among others. 

Our members are located across Canada and beyond, and hold roles within education, government, private, and non-profit sectors. ESAC members research, teach, work, and advocate within a multidisciplinary field that investigates, educates, guides, supports, and acts upon human-environment relationships.

Academics

Who We Are

Researchers

Students

If you have any inquiries, please email us at info@esac.ca

2023-2024 ESAC Board of Directors