On Project Pedestrian, I will be talking and walking with other pedestrians to learn about their experiences and how our cities and countrysides help or hinder walking.
In alphabetical order, I present:
Tasha Alexson
I met Tash a couple years ago when she took an introductory filmmaking course I was teaching. In that class she made a lovely short film that really captured the sense of a flâneuse, a woman exploring a city on foot. When I started working on Project Pedestrian, I knew Tash was one of the people I wanted to work with. Tash and I had a really interesting conversation about her experiences of getting to know Regina by walking around in it, some precautions she needs to consider as a young woman walking in the city, and we did a walk through Regina’s under-construction downtown and the neighbourhood south of downtown that we’ve both lived in.
Tasha Alexson is from Kahkewistahaw First Nation. She studied film production at the University of Regina, but she’s currently taking a break from school to focus on work, personal growth, and a modelling career. She works at Regina Treaty/Status Indian Services, a role she finds rewarding and that keeps her rooted in her culture, as does her work in the fashion industry, where she celebrates her Cree heritage and its artistic expression. Tash is passionate about many hobbies, and she tries to integrate her love for film into her modelling career through content creation and promotional projects, while also taking part in creative initiatives like Project Pedestrian. You can follow Tash on Instagram.
Matthew Anderson
I had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew about his books The Good Walk and Someone Else’s Saint, walking on the prairies, and pilgrimage. It was my good fortune that Matthew was back in Saskatchewan to mark the 10th anniversary of the walk from Wood Mountain to the Cypress Hills that forms a significant section of his book The Good Walk. Matthew is still recovering from a stroke and his ability to walk distances is still a work in progress; we had an interesting conversation about that. While we weren’t able to go on a walk together, his books give you an idea of what he’d be like as a walking companion.
Matthew Anderson holds a Gatto Chair of Christian Studies at St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki, (Canada) and is an affiliate professor at Concordia, Montreal. In addition to many academic articles and book chapters, Matthew has published six books: Someone Else’s Saint: How a Scottish Pilgrimage Led to Nova Scotia (Pottersfield, 2025), The Good Walk: Creating New Paths on Traditional Prairie Trails (University of Regina Press, 2024; winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award), Prophets of Love: The Unlikely Kinship of Leonard Cohen and the Apostle Paul (McGill-Queens University Press, 2023); Our Home and Treaty Land: Revised and Expanded Edition (with Dr. Ray Aldred, Friesen Press, 2024); and Pairings: The Bible and Booze (Novalis, 2021), in French as Apocalypse et gin tonic (2022). Matthew has walked many pilgrimage routes internationally and has created others with Indigenous guidance and help on Treaty lands in Canada. Matthew produces the pilgrimage podcast Pilgrimage Stories from Up and Down the Staircase, and blogs at Something Grand and Unsettled Words.
Shawn Micallef
I had the pleasure of talking with Shawn about his book Stroll, Spacing magazine, and walking in Toronto. Shawn and I also recorded a walk in the neighbourhood around Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto, an area familiar to both of us. Shawn lives south of Dufferin Grove Park, and I lived near the intersection of Bloor and Dufferin between 1996-2003.
Shawn Micallef is the author of Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness (2017), The Trouble With Brunch: Work Class and the Pursuit of Leisure (2014)and Full Frontal TO: Exploring Toronto’s Vernacular Architecture (2012). The updated and expanded edition of his first book, Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, was published in 2024. He’s a Toronto Star columnist, civics instructor at University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow at Massey College where he was also a 2011-2012 Southam Journalism Fellow. Shawn is a co-founder of Spacing, a magazine about Canadian cities and urban issues. In 2002, while a resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, he co-founded [murmur], a location-based mobile phone documentary project established in over 20 cities globally. You can follow Shawn on Instagram and Bluesky.
Laura Pfeifer
I really enjoyed talking with Laura about her passion for cities and walking. I first met Laura around 2010 at a Jane’s Walk, which she brought to Regina and organised even after she moved away from the city. We went for a walk in Argyle Park, the Regina neighbourhood she grew up in. Though I was born and raised in Regina and have lived here for decades, Argyle Park is not a part of the city I know at all, and it was fascinating to see how this neighbourhood, which was developed in the 1970s and lies just to the north of the city’s Ring Road, had designated pedestrian cut-throughs linking many streets, meaning pedestrians had shorter, traffic-free routes to move through the neighbourhood.
Laura Pfeifer is an urban planner and lifelong pedestrian. She holds both a Master of Science and a Masters in Urban Planning from McGill University and has worked for municipalities and private firms in both Canada and the US. Laura is currently the Manager of the City Revitalization Branch at the City of Regina. Prior to joining the City of Regina, Laura worked for the City of Toronto as part of their City Planning Strategic Initiatives unit, the Pedestrian Projects team, and was a member of the 2014-15 Toronto Urban Fellows program. She was the head organizer of the Regina Jane’s Walk festival for 10 years and continues to believe that the best way to explore and understand the city is on foot.
Ken Wilson
It was wonderful talking with Ken (aka Dr. Ken Wilson). I’ve known Ken for a couple decades and I have seen how walking has become a vital and creative component of his life. He’s been very generous in sharing the sources of his walking knowledge, and introduced me to a range of people, texts, and media on walking. We talked about his 2025 book Walking The Bypass, published by University of Regina Press, his forthcoming book Walking Well, and about some of his other long-distance walks. I also joined Ken for a walk along a part of the Regina Bypass, which provides the route for Walking The Bypass. Ken contributed a list of eleven books on walking by Canadian authors to 49th Shelf.
Ken Wilson is a settler who grew up in the Haldimand Tract in southwestern Ontario, Canada. He lives on Treaty 4 territory in oskana kâ-asastêki (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada), where he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Regina. His book, Walking the Bypass: Notes on Place from the Side of the Road, is his first; its manuscript won the 2022 City of Regina Writing Award. His second book, Walking Well, will appear in 2026. He has published creative nonfiction and poetry; his academic publications include articles and book chapters on pilgrimage and walking as a mode of performance. You can follow Ken’s blog Reading and Walking and find him on Instagram and Bluesky.
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