Resource and Environmental Management PhD student Brent Loken and English PhD student Alana Gerecke are trailblazing new ways of sustaining and enriching communities at opposite ends of the world.

But their remarkable scholarly and social accomplishments have brought them together to receive prestigious $180,000 Trudeau Scholarships.

The SFU students are among 14 Canadian and foreign Trudeau scholarship winners conducting doctoral research in areas including the environment, international affairs, responsible citizenship, and human rights and dignity.

Loken, who also received a Vanier scholarship in April, spends five months each year in East Kalimantan, Borneo, where he co-founded a non-profit group called Ethical Expeditions.

The group is helping the region’s ndigenous Wehea Dayak people reconnect with their cultural traditions after being mostly displaced from their traditional way of life as a result of deforestation.

“There’s no place like it on the planet,” says Loken, “and seeing how much rainforest has been lost in the last 20 years is just devastating.”

He hopes his research into the resilience and sustainability of socio-ecological systems in Borneo can produce a working model for how local communities and government can work together to protect both forest and culture.

Gerecke, a professional contemporary dancer, is researching how site-based dance in public places can help stimulate urban regeneration in North America.

Her research into how site-based dance can challenge and change the way we move in and through public spaces dovetails with the Trudeau Foundation’s interest in funding research that fosters responsible citizenship.

“I draw from current debates about the role of art and culture in urban sustainability to challenge a widely held assumption that performance in public places equally democratizes performance and public places,” says Gerecke.

Seven SFU students have received Trudeau scholarships since their introduction in 2003.