Congratulations to the following FASS researchers who were awarded Partnership Development Grants by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the November 2025 competition.

Dr. Kester Dyer

School for Studies in Art and Culture

With a team that includes collaborators Greg Allison and Hasi Eldib (Teaching and Learning Services), Duncan McCue (Journalism & Communication) and co-applicant Ellen Waterman (School for Studies in Art and Culture), Kester Dyer will investigate and challenge the colonial structures that underpin academic spaces and media industry environments, exploring how Indigenous-authored multidisciplinary media creation can incite interdisciplinary critical reflection and structure change in academic institutions in ways that respond to the aspirations and worldviews of Indigenous peoples. The core partnership is with , an Indigenous participatory filmmaking studio, with support from the in Ottawa and , an Indigenous-run media production company in Gatineau. Together with academic partners 杏吧原创 University and Concordia University, a diverse range of workshops, internships, and other learning opportunities will counter the linguistic barriers imposed on Indigenous artists and scholars by French/English binaries in Canada and provide training in media creation skills as well as on-set experience and mentorship on Indigenous-led professional film and television productions.听

Dr. Laura Horak

School for Studies in Art and Culture

Laura Horak will preserve and analyze trans films that are currently at risk of disappearing due to degraded VHS tapes, lost hard drives, and under-resourced archives. She will determine how archives can best preserve trans-made audiovisual materials while respecting trans-people鈥檚 identities and privacy and create an archive network in Canada and the United States鈥攖he 鈥淭rans Audiovisual Preservation Alliance鈥濃�攖o share strategies and resources for preserving these films. Furthermore, the project will generate new knowledge about the first wave of trans filmmaking by analyzing how filmmakers used aesthetics and narrative in their work, how they conceptualized the emerging term transgender, and what kinds of communities they imagined into being through filmmaking. The project will bring together (Toronto), the (University of Victoria) and the (San Francisco) alongside 杏吧原创 University and Queen鈥檚 University to ensure that trans filmmaking remains accessible for research, education, and community connection for generations to come.  

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Congratulations to the following Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences researchers who were awarded Insight Grants by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the October 2025 competition!听

• Gabriele Contessa (Department of Philosophy) will explore the profound epistemic malaise that liberal democracies are experiencing. Contessa proposes the post-trust diagnosis as an explanation, which maintains that this malaise results from collective epistemic failings, not individual ones. Our 鈥榚pistemic infrastructure鈥� 鈥� the system of institutions, norms, and procedures that promotes the production, transmission, recession, and uptake of information 鈥� is increasingly dysfunctional and, as a result, many communities have developed a mistrust of its institutions (e.g., government, the press, science). Through a deeper understanding of collective failings, rather than blaming individual citizens for their alleged failures, the project aims to improve democratic discourse and repair social bonds.听

• S茅bastien C么t茅 (Department of French) seeks to create an edited edition of the 鈥淟ettres canadienne,鈥� an 18^th century French manuscript virtually unknown to literary researchers and historians. Written by an anonymous author who claimed to live in New France between 1692 and 1699, the manuscript is composed 259 letters with 26 people, sharing the news of Europe and the Ottoman Empire with their Canadian contacts and relating their experiences in New France with their European contacts. Through the edited edition, C么t茅 will redefine our knowledge of the literature of New France, in particular the role transatlantic networks played in the circulation of knowledge and the colonial imagination.听听

• Shawn Graham (Department of History) will employ technologies such as multimodal neural networks and natural language processing to enhance how digital archeology can be done in inaccessible places. Building on his work conducing the first archeological analysis of the International Space Station, Graham will use the same methods to focus on the human impact on Chomolungma, also known as Mt. Everest. Using digital tools, the project will map human impacts on the mountain by training neural network models on photography from climbing routes and base camps from the earliest expeditions to the present. Integrating visual data with environmental and historical data, the project will address gaps in our understanding of climbing culture鈥檚 material signatures and will pioneer new digital archeology practices.听听

• Katie Gunnell (Department of Psychology), with co-applicant Andrea Howard (Psychology), will examine how adolescents experience social media in real time and whether those experiences support or undermine their well-being. Concerns social media鈥檚 negative impacts are widespread with social media bans for youth increasingly being considered as a policy solution. However, adolescents themselves do not rank social media as a top concern and scientific evidence is inconclusive. This project will analyze in-moment experiences over three studies, examining how adolescents craft their social media experiences, how mindfulness functions as an inner regulatory resource, and how attentional patterns serve as the behavioural manifestation of this process. Results could offer support for alternative solutions that focus on social media skills rather than solely on restrictions.听听

• Paul Nelles (Department of History) will chart the mobility of a defined cluster of religious materials (wax Agnus Dei disks, rosary beads blessed by the pope, copies of the icon of the Madonna of Santa Maria Maggiore, and relics) that originated in Rome and were transported by Jesuit missionaries across the globe, focussing on Rome, Lisbon, Mexico City, and Puebla. By studying the material and social pathways of religious materials, objects, and images in transnational and cross-cultural exchange, the project will contribute to our understanding of how the alternately privileged and contested status of materiality functioned to destabilize and reconfigure religion as a distinct sphere of social activity in the early modern world.听

• Vida Panitch (Department of Philosophy) will examine the hotly debated question of restricting the choices of consenting adults in a market economy. Panitch aims to show that none of the leading positions are consistent with or succeed in reconciling the liberal democratic commitment to market autonomy while at the same time protecting civic (e.g., votes), necessary (e.g., health care), and physical (e.g., body parts) goods from market valuation and exchange. She will propose and apply an anti-commodification argument grounded in a political conception of justice to help policy analysts, lawmakers, and the general public develop a better understanding of how these areas of public concern interact, how they reflect a shared concern with contested commodification, and how to best reconcile our dual commitments as Canadians to market autonomy and market regulation.听

• Peter Pulsifer (Department of Geography and Environmental Science) will develop interactive story maps and geovisualizations of chapters written by Assiniboia Residential School survivors in Did You See Us? Reunion, Remembrance, and Reclamation at an Urban Indian Residential School. Aiming to further develop critical approaches to mapping Indigenous perspectives and knowledge in collaboration with members of the Assiniboia Residential School Legacy Group, the project will explore ways to map the sociocultural and political economic context of the residential school narratives.听听

• Dipto Sarkar (Department of Geography and Environmental Science) will continue his research on OpenStreetMap (OSM), a volunteer mapping project that has become a critical global geospatial data infrastructure. While providing essential information for humanitarian organizations, technology corporations, and governments, its sustainability is threatened by contributor attrition and contribution inequity, resulting in compromised data quality with significant gaps and systemic biases that disproportionately affect the Global South and underrepresented communities. This project will diagnose and address the root causes of contributor engagement to develop and test a targeted intervention to solve the challenges OSM faces. It will also offer a model for understanding and improving volunteer engagement across other large-scale citizen science and digital crowd-sourcing platforms.听听

• Sheryl-Ann Simpson (Department of Geography and Environmental Science) will analyze environmental narratives in Caribbean theatre from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Caribbean has both been a site of environmental disruption and decolonization and independence movements in which theatre played a key role as a mixed-media and portable art form that reached a broad public. She will use abolition ecology and performance frameworks to analyze published and unpublished material to help build understandings of root causes of environmental harms, and provide ideas for practices of repair, environmental justice, and freedom-making.听听

• 脡尘颈濒颈别 Urbain (Department of French), with collaborator Rachelle Vessey (School of Linguistics and Language Studies), will study the evolution of discourse and attitudes on Indigenous languages beginning in the 1960s in the Maritimes and Quebec. The project will analyze the role of social and linguistic differentiation of Indigenous peoples and their languages in francophone public discourse, specifically the ways in which Indigenous languages are rendered invisible and the processes at work in creating linguistic hierarchies. The project will combine sociolinguistic approaches and discourse analysis to produce a qualitative analysis of these discourses and their rhetorical construction.听听

• Ellen Waterman (School for Studies in Art and Culture), with co-applicants Barbara Leckie (Department of English Language and Literature) and Jesse Stewart (School for Studies in Art and Culture), will mobilize the expressive power of participatory sonic arts in considering how society can effectively respond to the climate crisis. Disability, neurodiversity and d/Deaf communities are some of the most impacted by climate disruption, and they have expertise 鈥� too often ignored 鈥� in adaptation and resilience that can make a valuable contribution to our ability to imagine liveable futures. She will collaborate with disabled, neurodivergent, and d/Deaf artists in four research-creation sub-projects to focus attention on the capacity of the creative arts to reach audiences and translate knowledge in experiential and deeply affective ways while simultaneously building capacity for equitable participation in the arts.听听

support research excellence in the social sciences and humanities, enabling scholars to address complex issues about individuals and societies, and to further our collective understanding.听

Congratulations to the following Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences researchers who were awarded Insight Development Grants by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the February 2026 competition!听

• Emilie Cameron (Department of Geography and Environmental Studies) received funding to examine environmental impact assessment and regulatory systems in Yukon. Since the 1980s, co-managed impact assessment institutions established through land claim agreements have been framed as mechanisms for responsible, participatory, and sustainable decision-making that respect Indigenous rights. But, how does it operate in practice? To answer this question, Cameron will work collaboratively with two Yukon First Nations to conduct a detailed empirical analysis of Yukon鈥檚 assessment and regulatory system since 2006. It aims to better understand the role of impact assessment in securing continued access to Indigenous lands for extractive capital and support Indigenous-led, consent-based governance alternatives while contributing to broader debates about colonialism, land claims and extractivism in the contemporary North.听听

• Katie Gunnell (Department of Psychology) will examine whether athletes perceive GenAI as supportive or undermining social agents and whether those perceptions align with, or extend, models developed for human coaches. Athletes are increasingly using GenAI to support training plan development, goal setting, performance reflection and motivational guidance, yet little is known about how they experience these tools, and whether they support or undermine athletes鈥� motivation and well-being. The project uses a mixed-methods design in two studies: Study 1 uses qualitative interviews to explore how athletes use GenAI tools and how they experience it and study 2 uses experience-sampling to explore whether their perceptions are associated with day-to-day changes in motivation and well-being across one week. This project will provide the first empirical evidence on how GenAI functions as a motivational influence and support coaches, athletes, and policy makers as GenAI is more commonly used. 听

• Robin Norris (Department of English Language and Literature) will conduct a research-creation project to visualize what the Old English Rune Poem (OERP) looked like on the manuscript page and explore the linguistic and intellectual work it performed in its multilingual, multicultural world. Runes are characters in a set of ancient alphabets used before and during the Middle Ages. A thousand years ago, a scribe wrote down the OERP, which largely depicts plants, animals and weather, providing a field guide to the medieval environment. Later readers updated it and it was bound in a book about saints鈥� lives. It eventually appeared in print but was destroyed by fire. Recent editions have been based on transcripts disconnected from the form, contexts, and materiality of the manuscript. This project will publish a digital scholarly edition, translation, and contextualization of the OERP online to answer two questions: what did the OERP look like when an early medieval scribe wrote it down and what did later readers add to the text? By uncovering new perspectives on the work of Old English scribes and Early Modern antiquarians, the project demonstrates how our access to early texts is always mediated by the editors who preserved and transmitted them.听

• Brian Strong (School of Linguistics and Language Studies) received funding to explore the efficacy of 鈥榞uess-first鈥� instructional design in second language learning. Current materials force students to learn through trial and error, but there is little empirical research on its impact on second language vocabulary acquisition. Cognitive psychology findings suggest making and correcting errors promotes retention, but largely in relation to semantically related concepts. This project tests the Recursive Reminding Model, which suggests that semantic overlap is not necessary and that learning occurs when the learner integrates the episode of making the error with the correct feedback to create a contrastive link that prevents future confusion. The results will offer empirical insights to inform potential refinements in language technology programs (e.g. Duolingo) and textbooks to improve the efficacy of second language acquisition.听听

The supports research excellence in the social sciences and humanities by providing funding for researchers to pursue new research directions for up to two years.听听

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Congratulations to Dr. Vivian Lee (Psychology, Nominated Principal Applicant) and Dr. Karen Sewell (School of Social Work, Principal Applicant) who were awarded a Project Grant by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in the Spring 2026 competition!听

The project focuses on the Stop Now and Plan Program (SNAP), a Canadian, evidence-based, multi-component cognitive behavioural intervention for children with disruptive behaviours and their parents. Autistic children and their parents have been historically excluded from family-focused mental health interventions, such as SNAP, perpetuating inequities in care. An adjusted version for autistic children has shown promise in feasibility studies and Lee and Sewell will conduct a pilot randomized clinical trial in community settings to capture child, parent, and facilitator satisfaction with the program and the randomized clinical trial procedures. This will inform the development and implementation of a full randomized clinical trial that could improve mental health care, service delivery, and policy for children and families with autism. 

The supports ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems and/or health outcomes.  

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Wohl is the first 杏吧原创 researcher to be named a CAHS Fellow 鈥� one of the highest honours for members of the Canadian health sciences community.

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Prof. Pulsifer (Geography and Environmental Studies) is the first 杏吧原创 researcher to receive funding through Horizon Europe.

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Congratulations to history professor Jennifer Evans, who was awarded a Destination Horizon Europe Grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the January 2026 competition.

Dr. Evans will lead a team of scholars seeking to build a network to explore how, throughout history and today, LGBTQIA individuals have created livable lives under adverse conditions through practices such as community-building, mutual care, and political self-organization. Drawing on queer history, public history, and democratic theory, the project traces how these practices have generated resilience, collectivity, and moments of joy and creativity. The team will connect historical insight with present-day democratic renewal, providing historical examples for educators, museum workers, and community activists documenting the struggle for acceptance and also that, in some cases, LGBTQIA individuals lived and even thrived with the acceptance of families, peers, local communities and the authorities.

Destination Horizon Grants support researchers affiliated with eligible Canadian postsecondary institutions to build capacity, foster existing partnerships, and further develop networks and/or consortia with European Union鈥�(EU) and other 鈥� researchers, with the ultimate goal of applying to 鈥擯illar鈥疘I calls for proposals. 

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Congratulations to听Stephan Gruber听(Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences), who was awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant in the November 2025 competition.

Dr. Gruber鈥檚 research focuses on permafrost thaw, one of the most consequential yet least predicable aspects of Arctic听climate听change. The goal of his research is to produce a unified scientific framework that enables Canada to听observe, understand, and predict permafrost change and related risks to infrastructure, mobility and northern communities that are essential for national security and sovereignty.听

With Discovery Grant funding, Dr. Gruber will enhance transient permafrost simulation, modernize field observation through innovative instrumentation and new analytical methods, and link transient modelling with reconstructions of past climate and landscape evolution to understand long-term system conditioning.听By developing open, Canada-governed tools and datasets,听Dr. Gruber鈥檚 research听positions Canada for Arctic leadership听and sustained scientific sovereignty in a rapidly changing North.听

NSERC Discovery Grants support the development and sustainability of a diverse, high-quality research base in the natural sciences and engineering (NSE) at Canadian universities, fosters research excellence, and strengthens the research training environment. 

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The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences extends its congratulations to ACME: An International Journal of Critical Geographies and the on receiving Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Aid to Scholarly Journals support in the .

Managed by a large editorial collective, including Geography and Environmental Sciences professor David Hugill (one of two editors-in-chief), ACME provides a multilingual forum for critical, interdisciplinary analyses of social, spatial, ecological and political spaces. It publishes work that advances critical frameworks aligned with anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperials, anti-speciesist, anti-authoritarian, Black, Indigenous, feminist, crip, trans, queer, and multi-species perspectives. The journal is notable for blending theoretical and methodological boldness with political relevance and embraces multiple formats to increase accessibility to diverse audiences.

The Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics (CJAL)/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliqu茅e (RCLA) is the official journal of the Canadian association of Applied Linguistics. A bilingual journal, it publishes on a wide range of topics in applied linguistics, including first and second language acquisition, first and second language teaching, bilingual education, sociolinguistics, language planning, sociology of language, psycholinguistics, literacy, and applied phonetics. School of Linguistics and Language Studies professors Michael Rodgers and Eva Kartchava are the journal鈥檚 editors-in-chief.

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