The grant helps to fulfill one of our core mandates: to promote the professional development of our junior colleagues through mentorship and constructive feedback on their research during the adjudication process.

is an architect and researcher with the Azrieli School, promoting pedagogy and research in the newly established area of Design and Spatial Justice. Menna holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp, and a Master of Arts in Gender and Design from Köln International School of Design. In 2019/2020, she was the Spatial Justice Fellow and a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon. She is a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian, a legacy that infuses her research interests in race, gender, space, and territory. Among her publications are: Nubia still exists: The Utility of the Nostalgic Space; The Non-work of the Unimportant: The shadow economy of Nubian women in displacement villages; and Liminal Publics, Marginal Resistance.

Her research, in her own words: My proposed project is an Action Research that aims uncover possibilities of imagining the city otherwise. In this project, I follow in the footsteps of black feminist scholars and propound a project based on audacity, courage, and rigour to challenge, disrupt and heal embedded and ongoing spatial injustices. the project aspires on moving the design-build model away from its charitable position and explore its role as a relational device, one that aims to inflict systemic change instead of being analgesic in its function. I build on intersectional feminist knowledge to explore the role and possibilities of architectural education, namely service-learning modules, in engaging with patterns of spatial injustice in cities profoundly and materially disrupt systems of private property, racialization, gentrification, and heteropatriarchy as they manifest in the built environment.

Dr. Manjeet Birk (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies and teaches in the newly established Critical Race Studies minor program. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work centres the lived experience of racialized and Indigenous girls and women in Canada. Her research focuses on women’s organizing, social justice and institutional racism using critical race, intersectional and decolonizing theories and methodologies. Her interests are grounded in her community activism working with women’s organizations locally, nationally and internationally. With a lifetime of experience organizing, troubling and challenging systems, Manjeet is always looking for new ways to re-conceptualize a more beautiful world.

Manjeet’s RIFA funded project entitled “EDI or Bust: Are university equity, diversity and inclusion policies working?” looks at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s policies to see if they are serving their intended outcome.  EDI or Bust questions the ways in which race and its intersections are addressed on campus and as such how these societal challenges are supporting/ marginalizing the racialized and Indigenous staff, students and faculty it is intended to support.

The grant helps to fulfill one of our core mandates: to promote the professional development of our junior colleagues through mentorship and constructive feedback on their research during the adjudication process.

Dr. Leila Angod (she/her) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Her research examines how schools invite young people to enact racial and colonial orders, and how youth engage, resist, and refuse these invitations. Her youth-centred and community-engaged projects include co-founding youth research journal. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at University of Toronto’s Centre for Urban Schooling and at Bielefeld University in Germany. 

Leila’s project, “Youth Anti-Racism Accelerator (YARA): BIPOC Youth Transforming Schooling Inequities through Research,” is a youth participatory action research study at an “urban priority” Ottawa secondary school. Working with BIPOC students as co-researchers and using anti-racist and decolonial approaches, YARA analyzes the structural disinvestment in students at the intersection of race and ability. This project addresses the institutionalization of Canadian antiblackness and white settler colonialism, inviting students’ visions and enactments of a humanizing education. 

Twitter: ĚýĚý

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Nana aba Duncan is an associate professor and the inaugural Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of race, journalism and leadership, which began when she was a William Southam Journalism Fellow at University of Toronto’s Massey College. Previously, Nana aba was a host and producer at CBC Radio for 15 years, most recently on Fresh Air, a weekend morning show. Nana aba is the founder of Media Girlfriends, a podcast production company which produced Strong and Free/Fort et Libre, a Black history series. Media Girlfriends is also a peer support network and annual scholarship for women and gender diverse students.

Nana aba’s project, “Researching Black People in Canada and Journalism for the Mary Ann Shadd Centre for Journalism and Belonging” involves five sub-projects covering the relationship between Black people in Canada and journalism in the past, present and future. This research is the first phase in the establishment of the Mary Ann Shadd Centre for Journalism and Belonging. The goal of the centre is to advocate, support and participate in inclusive and belonging-focused journalism in Canada through research, education, community-building and media production.

Nana aba goes by she/her and is @nanaaba on Twitter and @nanaabaduncan on IG.

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  (mostly she/her) is a nehiyaw person from Treaty 6 territory gratefully and happily living on Algonquin territory. Prior to her position with the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies and the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, she worked on Mi’kma’ki at the University of Prince Edward Island in Arts and Education. These positions indicate Omeasoo’s diverse and transdisciplinary research and teaching interests, including following up with knowledge translation and mobilization based upon her work with the Tla’amin Nation on the west coast of Turtle Island.  The Tla’amin people were kind enough to share their experiences and stories regarding a transitional moment in Indigenous architecture from about 1890-1970, and describe how Indigenous knowledge continued to be shared and disseminated within remaining environments. Omeasoo is committed to the stories of Elders who have built and shaped the intellectual, philosophical, physical, and spiritual worldviews that help define Indigenous trajectories in the current colonial context. 

Omeasoo’s RIFA funded project entitled, “Tla’amin Architecture in Language and Education: Preparing a SSHRC Connection Grant,”  is the first step toward the co-operative planning and development of an animated film incorporating Tla’amin teachings, values, and life lessons, with Tla’amin language and visual cues.  This project is meant to support the continued evolution and retention of key aspects of Tla’amin life and worldview. 

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Fady Shanouda (he/him) is a Critical Disability Studies scholar whose research examines disabled and mad students’ experiences in higher education. His scholarly contributions lie at the theoretical and pedagogical intersections of Disability, Mad, and Fat Studies and include socio-historical examinations that surface the interconnections of colonialism, racism, ableism/sanism and fatphobia. He has published scholarly articles in disability/mad-related issues in higher education, Canadian disability history, the anti-fat bias in medicine, and community-based learning. Fady is committed to research that simultaneously impacts academic thought and individuals in the community and thus created and hosts the podcast which invites activists, scholars, and artists to speak about how they envision crip/mad/fat thought, activism, and art can save the world. 

Project title: Student Suicides at Canadian Universities

Project description: ***Content warning – discussion of suicide***

Student suicides are an understudied phenomenon in Canada. Unlike other global north countries, Canada does not record or track the number of student suicides. This data gap is in stark contrast to the growing attention to student mental health on university campuses across the country. This project will research and collate the existing data about student suicides on Canadian campuses.While there have been significant innovations in the mental health arena, including the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence, these may obscure the scope of the problem. In many ways, we are designing and delivering solutions to a problem that is not clearly defined. With the issue of student suicides so unclear, universities’ planned roles in students’ mental health may be misguided. “Prevention-as-intervention” may not be the best approach. With more comprehensive data on suicide students, we can build campus programming that takes a holistic approach to suicide, not solely focused on prevention. 

Twitter: @fadyshanouda; Insta: @fadouda

This workshop focused on the complexities of teaching the undergraduate survey course, which is a staple across a multiplicity of disciplines. Often mired in western-centric frameworks that privilege certain canons, chronologies and methods of learning, panelists participating in this workshop discussed strategies for reimagining such courses through the lens of anti-racist and decolonizing pedagogies.

The event took place during Inclusion Week on October 20^th from 10 – 11:30am, and further supported RIFA’s mandate to share resources addressing systemic racism and anti-oppression methodologies in the classroom and the workplace.

Panel: Lane Bourbonnière, Malini Guha, Gül Kale, Carolyn Ramzy, Raj Singh, and Mikayla Sherry

Deadline: October 15, 2021

Award Announcement Date: October 30, 2021

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Value and duration

Up to eight grants of $4,000 each are available to cover expenses associated with the submission of funding applications, including: hiring an RA; collecting preliminary data; travel; field research; pilot or feasibility studies; or the provision of matching funds. Typically, the duration of the funding is for a maximum of one year from receipt of award, with a one-year no-cost extension. Due to the current COVID pandemic, the funding awarded in 2021 will be for a two-year period.

All applicants will receive feedback and the opportunity to work with a RIFA mentor following the award announcement.

Expectations

Recipients will be expected to submit a grant application within 12 months of receiving the funding.

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All Racialized and Indigenous full-time academic faculty (assistant professors, lecturers (pre-PhD) who are at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ are eligible. RIFA is aware of the constraints for lecturers to secure funding as primary applicants without faculty leads. If you are a full-time lecturer and would like to apply as a primary applicant to support your research towards an application for a Tri-Council government, NGO, or business grant application within 12 months, please contact the RIFA chair, Carolyn Ramzy.

1. Full time instructors (I and II) are invited to apply as co-applicants with faculty leads in anticipation of a collaborative Tri-Council, governmental, business or NGO grant application within 12 months of receiving this grant.
2. Applicants will apply for external funding within 12- months of receiving this grant, for which they will be the Principal Investigator for SSHRC/NSERC or Nominated Principal Investigators for CIHR.
3. Members who already hold a tri-council grant as primary investigator are not eligible for this award at this time.

If the project involves and requires an ethics review as defined by the Office of Research Ethics, applicants may apply to this grant without initial REB approval. However, approval must be received by the Office of Research Ethics before funding will be released.

How to applyĚýĚý

There are three pieces to this application:

1. Your completed RIFA award application form (please download the form-fillable pdf – required elements include project title, targeted external granting source(s), project description, and budget);
2. Your bibliography of works cited;
3. Your updated CV.

How to submit

Label each piece of your application package as follows:

• Lastname Firstname – application form
• Lastname Firstname – bibliography
• Lastname Firstname – CV

Email your application package to our adjudication committee by October 15, 2021.

Please put Lastname Firstname RIFA application in the subject line.

***Late and/or incomplete application packages will not be considered***

Adjudication

This award will be adjudicated by members of the RIFA steering committee. Committee members represent a range of faculties across ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University.

ResponsibilitiesĚýĚý  ĚýĚý  ĚýĚý 

1. Applicants who receive funding must submit a final report to the RIFA Research Chair adjudication committee at least six months after the award end date. The report should include the targeted external funding source(s) and any outcomes.
2. If, during the period of the award, the grantee resigns from their current appointment with the University, the grant will be terminated. Any unspent funds will be returned to the University.
3. This award is subject to:
   1. The of the Tri-Council
   2. ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s policies on fund management
4. Funds cannot be transferred to other institutions.