Roxy Cohen
Ph. D. Candidate, Faculty of Education, York University
Rooted and Rising Co-Creator
Roxy has a passion for creative and critical education spaces that support youth in leading the change into a better world. Roxy is currently in her PhD of Education at York University where she leads a team of professors, graduate students, community leaders and educators in the development of the Rooted and Rising Leadership Program through the Young Lives Research Lab.
Roxy has been actively responding to climate change since grade 11 when she started her school’s eco club. In university, Roxy took part in social movements, and found she and her friends were missing spaces to actually practice the solutions they were fighting for. Roxy co-started a free’scool in Toronto; and then, co-founded Conscious Minds Camp & Co-op (CMC), a 2-week pay-what-you-can sleepover summer camp developed by and for youth as a healing and transformative space in the face of social and ecological crises. Roxy now sits the Board of Directors as Treasurer as other youth members lead the organization.
Roxy also does education in food sovereignty and urban planning. Working with the St. James Town Community Co-operative, Roxy has led community-engaged design charrettes and municipal dialogues for the OASIS Food Hub, set to be an urban climate-resilient food hub that will grow food year-round, and process food waste into clean energy on-site.
In all her work, Roxy is committed to co-transforming the education system. Her goal is to uplift young people to collaborate, with older generations, and lead the transformation once again into balanced, healthy, diverse and respectful living.
Roxy holds a B.A. in Human Geography and Equity Studies from the University of Toronto and a Master’s in Education from York University.
Contact Roxy Cohen: cohenrox@yorku.ca
Publications
A Gallery to Rethink and Re-place the Anthropocene: Framing From A Place-based Borderless Higher Education by Steve Alsop and Roxanne Cohen, forthcoming.
Adaptation of a structured story-dialogue method for action research with social movement activists by Blake Poland and Roxanne Cohen, 2017.