Dr. Blake Poland, Associate Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Adjunct Professor, D partement de medecin sociale et pr ventive, Universit de Montr al, Quebec, Canada; Associate of the Department of Geography, University of Toronto. He is currently the Director of the Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion at the University of Toronto, and about to assume directorship of the Collaborative Program in Community Development (also at the University of Toronto, as of July 2007).
Blake Poland received his BA from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and his Masters and PhD from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Blake’s principal areas of research are: (a) community development as an arena of practice for health professionals; (b) social context of practice and settings for health promotion; and (c) until recently, the sociology of tobacco control. His work combines critical social theory and qualitative research methods (critical-interpretive methods) and community-based research
Recent and ongoing funded research includes a series of studies on how hospitals collaborate with community organizations to address determinants of health in the community; and community charitable food programs and their impact on the nutritional status and social exclusion of street-involved youth. A third program of research has examined the sociology of tobacco control, interpersonal management of environmental tobacco smoke in public places and in the home, and most recently how insights from social theory in sociology and anthropology can be applied to promote reflexivity in tobacco control practice re the social context of smoking. Most recently, Blake has turned his attention to arts-informed approaches to knowledge translation, dialogical methods, and environmental health promotion.
Blake may be contacted at blake.poland@utoronto.ca. See also http://www.phs.utoronto.ca/ or http://128.100.236.93/faculty_template.asp?GetFile=bPoland
Updated: February 2007
Health and Medical Geography 