AC_1965_Web

78 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z J O H N S O N JOHNSON LAURA [CLIMENKO] THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. Sociology and Anthropology 4 M.A. and Ph.D., Sociology, Cornell FAMI LY 4 Husband, Robert Johnson 4 Two sons ADDRESS 4 374 Sackville St. Toronto, ON M4X 155 Canada CONTACT 416 925-5886 lcjohnson@uwaterloo.ca I L I V E I N Toronto, Canada, with my husband Bob Johnson, also Antioch ’65. I commute regularly to Waterloo, Ontario, where I teach social planning at the University of Waterloo. I had an extended period as a student, starting with City and Country School in New York,where the curriculum was based on play- ing with blocks, then public school, then Music and Art High School in NewYork, thenAntioch, followed by Cornell for my masters and Ph.D. in sociology. Arriving at Cornell after Antioch was a culture shock—I re- call trying to find a particular gym to register for a class in modern dance, and finding my way into a gymna- sium with ROTC recruits marching. “No dancing here” they said. I’ve had the privilege of studying with many talented and dedicated teachers, but I’m a late bloomer in becoming a teacher myself. In 1997, after more than two decades of do- ing social research in a variety of community-based social research settings, I took up a position teach- ing social planning at University of Waterloo. Waterloo’s undergradu- ate program is a cooperative pro- gram, where students alternate be- tween study on campus and work in the real world—so I feel quite at home. My teaching emphasizes par- ticipatory planning and my recent research uses digital multimedia techniques to make the research ac- cessible to participants.My research has focused on issues relating to work/family balance, home-based work and telework, and social hous- ing. In 2004, following publication of my book, The Co-Workplace:Teleworking in the Neighbourhood , I was honored to receive the National Women in Planning award (in honor of Diana Donald) from theAmerican Planning Association. In 2006 I initiated a longitudi- nal study of social impacts on ten- ants of redevelopment of Regent Park, Canada’s oldest public housing project into a mixed tenure, high- density community. I am tracking a sample of some 50 of the original tenants through displacement, re- location and settlement and docu- menting their experiences with their redeveloped community. That downtown Toronto community is a twice-cleared site, having begun in 1947 as slum clearance.The current redevelopment began in 2005. Bob, a historian, is collaborating with me on studying the project’s early history. Earlier this month he pre- sented a paper on our work at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association held in Toronto. Our two sons have grown, and we are currently experiencing the joys of grandparenthood. Bob and I visited Antioch for our 40th re- union.We have a small community of Antioch alumni inToronto and on one occasion decades ago hosted a memorable local reunion. We plan to return to Yellow Springs for the upcoming 50th, where we look for- ward to seeing old friends.