UNews - Kristine Alexander

Media resources for Remembrance Day

caroline.zentner — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:39:59 +0000

Remembrance Day was created to commemorate members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty and those who continue to serve Canada in times of war and peace. The date, Nov. 11, also marks the time when fighting stopped in the First World War.

As Remembrance Day approaches, media are invited to speak with several ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors who have studied wartime and its effects on those who fought and those who stayed at home.

Dr. Kristine Alexander, a history professor, has studied young people’s experience on the home front during the First World War. The war changed what children learned in the classroom as Departments of Education and teachers developed war-related assignments. Canadian children also played with war-related toys like board games, toy soldiers and toy guns. Alexander has also studied correspondence between soldiers and their families to understand how the war affected wives and children. She can be reached by email at kristine.alexander@uleth.ca.

Jason Breen, an instructor in the Department of Philosophy, has taught classes about the philosophy of war. This includes the morality of war, particularly how just-war theory serves as a middle ground between the Hawks, who believe that might makes right and that there are no moral restrictions on war, and the Doves, who argue that war is never morally justifiable. He can also discuss ethical considerations during the three phases of war: entering, prosecuting, and ending armed conflicts, as well as the moral responsibilities of those involved in war toward their opponents, their troops and civilians on both sides. Contact caroline.zentner@uleth.ca to arrange an interview.

Dr. Amy Shaw is a history professor who has taught about and researched Canada in wartime, especially the First and Second World Wars. Her focus is often on gender and citizenship. She has written books about conscientious objection in the First World War and about the experiences and activities of women and girls of Canada and Newfoundland during both world wars. She has also published on the War in South Africa, Canada’s first overseas military action. Shaw can be reached at amy.shaw@uleth.ca.

Inspiring and motivating instructor, Dr. Kristine Alexander, recognized with Graduate Mentorship Award

trevor.kenney — Wed, 22 May 2024 16:06:55 +0000

An instructor and mentor with a unique ability to recognize the talent and potential of her students, Dr. Kristine Alexander inspires and motivates her graduate trainees by providing unwavering support and encouraging them to break boundaries and embrace risk in their learning journeys.

Alexander will be recognized with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge School of Graduate Studies Graduate Mentorship Award at 2024 Spring Convocation, Ceremony II on Thursday, May 30, 2024, 2:30 p.m. in the 1st Choice Savings Centre gymnasium.

Kristine Alexander held the Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies and was co-director of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s interdisciplinary Institute for Child and Youth Studies.

“As a fellow graduate mentor, I have learned tremendously from Dr. Alexander about how to set students up for success in academia and professionally after the degree,” says Dr. Gideon Fujiwara, who nominated Alexander for the honour. “Dr. Alexander prioritizes connecting students’ experiences at the U of L to their longer-term personal and professional goals while building a supportive and collegial intellectual community.”

Kristine Alexander

Inspired by the mentors who supported her along the way, Dr. Kristine Alexander is paying it forward by supporting her own graduate students on their academic and professional journeys.

Alexander is an Associate Professor in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Department of History. From 2013-2023 she held the Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies and was co-director of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s interdisciplinary Institute for Child and Youth Studies. She has supervised numerous graduate students in history and cultural, social and political thought (CSPT), served on supervisory committees in anthropology, CSPT, history and sociology, and (with Dr. Jan Newberry) recruited and supervised the first postdoctoral fellow in the humanities at ULethbridge.

Alexander encourages her graduate trainees to produce high-quality original research, to challenge and believe in themselves, and to connect their studies to their lives and aspirations beyond the university. Her students praise her unique ability to recognize and nurture their potential, and her approach combines intellectual rigour with encouragement, collaboration and support.

Over the past decade, Alexander’s graduate students have studied topics ranging from the Black Death in medieval Italy to the history of the American Hotel in Fort Macleod. Their research projects are historical as well as interdisciplinary, and Alexander encourages her trainees to share their findings with both academic and popular audiences. In addition to giving public talks, speaking to the media, and presenting at conferences across North America and Europe, Alexander’s students have curated exhibits at the Galt Museum and produced historical board games about the First World War and the Great Depression based on original archival research. Alexander involves her graduate students in community-engaged research projects, collaborates with them on publications, and supports them in their applications for scholarships and highly competitive national grants.

Trust, respect and community-building are cornerstones of Alexander’s mentorship style. While motivating each of them individually, she also fosters genuine and long-lasting connections between her graduate students. Alexander intentionally creates a lively and supportive intellectual community within which her students can share ideas, strategize together and celebrate each other’s successes.

Described by her students as insightful, patient, enthusiastic, supportive, kind, generous and empathetic, Alexander’s influence extends far beyond graduation. With her guidance, graduate trainees develop competencies and confidence that serve them well as they transition into professional careers. Her students note that she inspires them “to be kind, to be curious, and to work harder.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers secure SSHRC funding

trevor.kenney — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 15:14:53 +0000

Four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers were successful as principal applicants in earning funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The projects were part of 809 research initiatives from across Canada that received more than $175 million in funding.

This investment, through SSHRC’s Partnership Grants, Partnership Development Grants, Insight Grants and Aid to Scholarly Journals grants, supports research, research partnerships, and knowledge mobilization across a multitude of issues of critical relevance to Canadian society. Funding is provided to researchers, research teams and publications for projects of up to seven years.

“Now, more than ever, social sciences and humanities research plays an integral role as we navigate through the post-COVID-19 reality and continue to build a healthier, stronger and more prosperous Canada,” says the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “These grants enable scholars to address complex issues about communities and societies, and further our collective understanding so we can build a better future for all Canadians.”

Social sciences and humanities research such as this is essential to help Canadians understand and address some of the biggest challenges of our times.

ULethbridge projects include an examination of postpartum depression and maternal mental illness from Dr. Heather Stanley (history); a look at cancel culture from a marketing perspective by Dr. Rhiannon Mesler of the Dhillon School of Business; a study on successfully managing physical activity, from Dr. Scott Rathwell (kinesiology & physical education); and historian Dr. Kristine Alexander’s study, Children of the State: Age, Race, and Settler Colonialism in Canada.

“There’s a great breadth of expertise reflected in these successful projects and the culmination of their teams’ work will enhance our understanding of some very important issues,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, ULethbridge vice-president (research). “Research work like this in the humanities and social sciences creates insight and perspectives on key societal interests and sets the stage for the development of policies and practice.”

As well, ULethbridge researchers such as Dr. Carly Adams (kinesiology & physical education), secured funding as co-applicants on other projects. Adams is part of a Partnership Grant led by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria, Past Wrongs, Future Choices, that examines the mid-20th century internment, dispossession and displacement of people of Japanese descent (Nikkei) in allied countries. She also partnered with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba on an Insight Grant, The People’s History of Sport in Canada.

Following is a list of SSHRC grant recipients as principal applicants for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge:

Insight Grant

Dr. Heather Stanley, History, Maternal Darkness: Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Illness in Western Canada — $91,319 (5 years)

Insight Development Grant

Dr. Rhiannon Mesler, Dhillon School of Business, Marketing, Cancel Culture: An Examination of Individual and Situational Drivers — $74,636 (2 years)

Dr. Scott Rathwell, Kinesiology & Physical Education, Getting Back on Track: A Mixed Methods Study of Successful Management in Physical Activity — $74,170 (2 years)

Dr. Kristine Alexander, History, “Children of the State”: Age, Race, and Settler Colonialism in Canada — $25,459 (2 years)

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

Symposium and exhibit focus on local queer history

caroline.zentner — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 19:50:31 +0000

An exhibit devoted to local queer history, set to open on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the Galt Museum & Archives, is the first of its kind in southwestern Alberta.

For the past year, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors Drs. Kristine Alexander (history) and Suzanne Lenon (women and gender studies) have been working with Aimee Benoit, curator of the Galt Museum, undergraduate students and the teenage members of the Queer Impact Club (QIC) of the Boys & Girls Club of Lethbridge & District on a project that documents the queer histories of Lethbridge and southwestern Alberta.

The Inqueeries: 2SLGBTQ+ Histories of Southwestern Alberta exhibit features a variety of objects from the community, including the first pair of high heels from a local drag queen, a chest binder and costumes created by artist and scholar Shawn Singer to personify two-spirit people in Blackfoot history. Objects will be paired with a quote from the donor describing the object, what it means to them and their relationship to it. The exhibit will also showcase buttons and promotional material from Pride Fest and OUTreach and issues of The Occasion, a queer newsletter.

“Inqueeries is, for me, a great starting point to begin challenging misconceptions about the history of Lethbridge and Alberta as a whole,” says Liam Devitt, a student involved in the project. “Alberta is often thought of as a place of the “severely normal,” which overshadows much of this province’s rich queer history. With this exhibit and the upcoming symposium organized by the U of L’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies, I hope Lethbridge can become a hub for queer history research and we can begin to realize Alberta as a place of the severely queer.”

A week after the exhibit opens, a one-day symposium on Friday, Oct. 18 will allow for further discussions of queer and community-engaged approaches to oral history, museums, and child and youth studies. The symposium features presentations by the QIC youth curators, keynote speakers, paper presentations by the U of L undergrads involved in the project and a roundtable discussion. The speakers are authors and professors with expertise in the history of queer communities in Western Canada, transgender children and youth and queer literature.

“Queer Youth Curating Queer History is an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the historical research and intergenerational collaboration that has resulted in Inqueeries: 2SLGBTQ+ Histories of Southwestern Alberta, an exhibit open to the public until February, 2020,” says Alexander. “Featuring the work of queer youth, U of L undergraduate students and faculty, and invited keynote speakers from across North America, the symposium is going to make important contributions to academic and public discussions about resistance, community and queer histories in Lethbridge.”

Three U of L professors examine Western Canada during the First World War

caroline.zentner — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 17:14:42 +0000

In addition to the scholarly work that has been done on Canadian soldiers who served in the First World War, three ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors have focused their research on the war’s effects on those who were on the home front.

On Wednesday evening, Drs. Kristine Alexander, Amy Shaw and Elizabeth Galway reveal their findings and insights during a presentation called Western Canada at War.

“I’m going to be talking about young people’s experiences on the home front,” says Alexander, a history professor. “In 1914, attending school was compulsory for young people in every province except Quebec, and the war changed what children learned in their classrooms. Across the country, provincial Departments of Education and individual teachers developed new war-related assignments and teaching materials. In mathematics classes, for example, young people were regularly asked to calculate interest rates of Victory Bonds and to solve problems featuring Allied soldiers and German prisoners of war.”

From left to right are Drs. Amy Shaw, Kristine Alexander and Elizabeth Galway.

Canadian children also learned about the war in less formal ways: at home and in the press, they often heard talk that demonized the enemy and extolled the virtues of patriotism. They also played with war-related toys, like toy soldiers and toy guns, played war-themed board and card games, and some collected cards featuring weapons or generals that came in cigarette packages.

Alexander will also talk about her latest research project, which involves examining letters written between soldiers and their families back home, to better understand how the war affected wives and children of soldiers.

“Studying the war using personal documents like letters reminds us that war always has a heavy human cost. Even for kids living far from the front lines, the Great War still shaped their lives in ways that could be quite traumatic,” she says.

Dr. Amy Shaw has studied conscientious objectors during the First World War. The government’s conscription law provided an exemption from military service for members of churches, such as Mennonites and Quakers, with proscriptions against violence.

“When you’re trying to understand wartime society, the people who don’t fit in properly are sometimes a good way of understanding the rest of society,” says Shaw. “This was a time, especially during the war but also at the turn of the century generally, when duty was a big part of the way people saw their relationship to the state and to each other.”

Conscientious objectors were often ridiculed, told they weren’t real men, or were over-intellectual or stupid in their blind following of church doctrine. Shaw estimates about 26,000 men were conscientious objectors, which required them to appear in front of a tribunal and state their reasons for objecting.

“Our memory of the First World War tends to be about soldiers fighting and this was a total war that affected people at home and affected people in a lot of different ways. This is a way of looking at the evolving relationship between the citizen and the state,” says Shaw.

Dr. Elizabeth Galway, an English professor, is writing a book about children’s literature during the First World War and has published articles on representations of boy soldiers and depictions of Canadian-American relations. Often, children’s literature was overtly pro-war but Galway’s research has revealed it is more complex than first meets the eye.

“The war influenced every genre of children’s literature, making its presence felt in alphabet books, craft books, school textbooks and more,” says Galway. “In addition, war, national identity and children themselves were depicted in diverse ways.”

While some writers softened images of warfare for young readers, others were more explicit in their accounts of violence. Similarly, some authors saw children as innocent victims of war while others portrayed them as empowered contributors to the war effort.

Canada, as a nation, was portrayed both as a loyal imperial subject and as a fully-fledged nation that proved its strength through achievements on the battlefield. Children’s literature had the power not only to influence attitudes towards warfare, but to shape how readers understood the Canadian nation and the state of childhood.

The Western Canada at War session on Wednesday, Nov. 30 begins at 7 p.m. in the Dr. Foster James Penny Building, PB200, located at 324 5 St. S. Admission is free and a cash bar and appetizers are available at 6 p.m.

Building rapport key to success of the Raising Spirit project

caroline.zentner — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 21:51:11 +0000

Taylor Little Mustache couldn’t have asked for a better summer job. As a research assistant with Raising Spirit: The Opokaa’sin Digital Storytelling Project, Little Mustache says she felt honoured to work on a project where she learned so much.

“I feel humbled by being a part of this creation,” she says about the project that features photos of Blackfoot family life and audio recordings where Blackfoot Elders and children come together for the telling of traditional cultural stories.

Raising Spirit is a collaborative project of the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS). The purpose is to help ensure Blackfoot history, language and values endure and shape future generations, as well as build research capacity and understanding of intergenerational knowledge transmission that was interrupted by residential schooling. Once completed, the goal is to produce a digital library that will be a community resource.

Little Mustache, who’s entering her third year of studies at the U of L, is working on a combined education, Native American Studies and history degree. She also has a love of athletics, especially basketball. She has coached for the Alberta Summer Games and the Junior Pronghorns teams. She became part of the Raising Spirit project after taking a history of childhood course and an independent study with Dr. Kristine Alexander, the director of I-CYS.

Her fields of study and experience working with youth and community organizations have served her well in her work with the Raising Spirit project. She’s been busy building rapport with the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society and the Piikani and Kainai First Nations. Little Mustache has worked with children aged four to seven and youth up to 18 years of age. She has presented on the project at conferences, met with Elders, collected and organized data, and transcribed interviews. In addition, Taylor has supervised the growing research skills of two high school summer students, Hudson Eagle Bear and Tesla Heavy Runner.

Little Mustache says she found the field work component of her job especially engaging. She attended a Blackfoot immersion camp, slept in a teepee for the first time and furthered her knowledge of cultural traditions.

“I’ve learned so much from the elders I got to meet over the summer. They hold so much knowledge,” she says. “I’m well connected to my culture but this field work made the connection even stronger.”

At first, she wondered how she could contribute to the research team — Tanya Pace-Crosschild (BSc ’98), executive director of Opokaa’sin, and the Opokaa’sin staff, U of L professors Jan Newberry and Kristine Alexander and Erin Spring, a post-doctoral fellow and Amy Mack (MA ’16). Michelle Hogue and Francis First Charger serve as advisors on the project.

“When I first met them I felt a little under-qualified because I was just an undergraduate. However, they made me feel comfortable and I want to acknowledge their mentorship,” says Little Mustache. “This project really opened doors for me.”

One of those doors is a co-operative placement with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada this fall. She’ll be working as a junior program analyst in the education branch.

“I’ll be conducting policy research and analyzing indigenous education issues,” she says. “I’m super excited and the position is a good fit for my research skills.”

International child and youth studies conference looks to engage local practitioners

trevor.kenney — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 20:19:04 +0000

Leading researchers and practitioners will examine the state of child and youth studies at an international conference to be held at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in May.

Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood II will be held in Markin Hall, May 8-10, 2015, and is hosted by the U of L’s Institute of Child and Youth Studies (I-CYS). It will bring together scholars and practitioners from a wide variety of academic disciplines including the sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, policy studies, social work and education in an effort to share knowledge and create collaborative opportunities.

“Conferences like this are important in that they promote and empower new ideas,” says Dr. Kristine Alexander, I-CYS co-director and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Child and Youth Studies. “Bringing a wide spectrum of people together – ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, community members, practitioners – will allow for a broader understanding, and creation of, new knowledge and the opportunity to ensure that new ideas are considered by those who work with youth.”

All interested parties are invited to attend the conference and take in the multidisciplinary panels, scholarly presentations, poster sessions, keynote events, practitioner sessions and feature film screening. Registration and conference details can be found at uleth.ca/conreg/icys/.

The conference builds on the understanding of the inaugural event held at the U of L in 2011 that attracted an international group of 125 scholars. That conference was a catalyst for the creation of I-CYS, which is now directed by a group of seven primary researchers.

Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood II features keynote addresses by three international speakers:

- Tim Gill (British children’s advocate): From Protection to Resilience: Why and How We Should Reframe our Approach to Risk in Childhood.
- Dr. Katie Hinde (Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ): Food, Medicine, & Signal: How Mother's Milk Shapes Infant Development.
- Dr. Karen Wells (Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies, Birkbeck ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of London): Theorising Transnational Childhoods: Networks, Capital, and Social Reproduction.

Additionally, Dr. Jane Humphries (Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, Oxford) will host a discussion following a screening of the BBC4 documentary, The Children Who Built Victorian Britain, based on her book, Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution.

Practitioner workshops that pair ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ with professionals such as teachers, social workers, policy makers and others will also take place at the conference. These workshops include:

- Moving the Mountain: Brianna Olson & Wallis Kendal (iHuman Youth Society, Edmonton).
- Making the Most of Individual Differences in Education: Applications from the Montessori Method: Zahra Foroud & Dr. Afra Foroud.
- Practical Advice for Fostering Healthy Brain Development: Dr. Robbin Gibb, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.
- Bridging Cultures: Engaging Aboriginal Learners in Culturally Relevant Ways: Dr. Michelle Hogue & Ira Provost (��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge).

The U of L’s Institute for Child & Youth Studies is a multidisciplinary research institute committed to examining what children and youth mean as social, demographic, artistic, legal and existential categories. While strongly grounded in the humanities and social sciences, I-CYS connects scholars working in all disciplines and faculties at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and beyond.

I-CYS is also a community-building project. Through events, an e-newsletter and website, the group fosters conversations and collaborations that cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, while creating links between scholars, practitioners and community members. The group aims to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research – both curiosity- and policy-driven – about young people.

Hidden Paths, Tangled Woods and Interesting Play Spaces

david.kirby — Thu, 15 May 2014 22:10:14 +0000

Illustration by Elena Ballam.

The way we study young people is taking on a whole new meaning at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, where researchers are using a holistic approach to understand their experiences, development and challenges.

The Institute for Child and Youth Studies, or I-CYS, is a research institute that is using a multidisciplinary lens to examine what children and youth mean as social, demographic, artistic, legal and existential categories. Launched in October 2012, and one of only a small handful of such initiatives worldwide, the institute involves U of L scholars from the humanities, social sciences and sciences collaborating to gain a greater understanding of child and youth matters.

“Cross-disciplinary work is especially important for understanding young people,” says I-CYS co-director Dr. Kristine Alexander, a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies and an assistant professor of history. “The academic study of history, like many other fields, was initially based on the assumption that young people’s thoughts and experiences were less important than those of adults. Challenging this assumption by working collaboratively is at the heart of what I-CYS is all about.”

Alexander began working at the U of L in July 2013, and says she has been impressed by the creativity and passion of her colleagues. The concept for I-CYS emerged from an international conference on the state of child studies held at the U of L in May 2011. Childhoods Conference: Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood was a multidisciplinary three-day event that focused on new research results, policy approaches and theoretical paradigms in the field of child and childhood study. Scholars from the U of L and other institutions in disciplines such as education, sociology, English and neuroscience joined
with child and youth practitioners to discuss themes such as gender, globalization, technology and adolescence.

“If you only talk to people who know the same thing as you, your knowledge never changes. Having people from different disciplines engage with each other was a way to build on and exchange what we know about the young,” says I-CYS co-director Dr. Jan Newberry, Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the U of L and one of the conference organizers.

Back row (L-R) Dr. Louise Barrett, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour, Dr. Amy von Heyking, Dr. Jan Newberry, I-CYS co-director, Dr. Sergio Pellis, Board of Governors Research Chair. Front row (L-R) Dr. Janay Nugent, Dr. Elizabeth Galway, Dr. Kristine Alexander, I-CYS co-director and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Child and Youth Studies.

The diverse and provocative ideas that emerged from the conference prompted Newberry and her colleagues to explore developing a full-fledged multidisciplinary research initiative at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ focused on childhood studies. After a year and a half of planning, which included securing the Canada Research Chair, the idea came to fruition. Today, seven U of L faculty members from the disciplines of history, anthropology, literary studies, psychology, neuroscience and education lead the institute.

“I-CYS values curiosity and the exploration of ideas, just like the play of a child,” says Newberry. “As we talk from a variety of perspectives – the archives, the classroom, the field, the book, the laboratory – about what it means to try to study and understand the young, we discover hidden paths, tangled woods and interesting play spaces.”

Further, Newberry explains, I-CYS aims to be an idea generator (just like any entrepreneurial enterprise) – only the payoff here is better questions, especially those that aren’t usually asked because researchers are trapped in disciplinary silos.

To build on the momentum of the original conference, the institute is hosting an exchange of ideas with a selected group of national and international scholars and practitioners on campus this spring. The workshop, Risk and Resilience: Conjoined Categories with Multiple Mothers, will explore the dimensions of the potential dangers to youths and their responses to it, with the aim to encourage a more creative approach to research dissemination that will help research reach a wider, more general public.

“We see the workshop as the beginning step to creating a truly interdisciplinary approach to understanding young people,” Alexander says.

Through the playful exploration of new strategies for conducting research, and daring to think differently about how work is conducted within one’s own field, Alexander and Newberry hope participants will develop a whole new mindset to think about risk and resilience, fully embracing the advantages of a multidisciplinary perspective, and so pave the way for a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of child and youth.

U of L students are also helping to advance the institute’s objectives to better understand the lives of young people from a variety of perspectives. The institute holds “friendly feedback” sessions where students from different academic areas gain diverse input on their child- and youth-related research projects from the I-CYS directors. As well, the institute is recruiting a post-doctoral fellow for a one-year term starting this September. Over the longer term, I-CYS will introduce a minor option in child and youth studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and, eventually, undergraduate and graduate degrees in the subject.

A key part of the institute’s work involves pursuing a broad mix of partnerships to explore specific issues of childhood. To that end, it is exploring ways to engage with different groups within the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, including Complex Social Change, an interdisciplinary research program exploring how social change takes place; and the Centre for Oral History and Tradition, which is focused on advancing the practice of oral history.

Outside of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the institute will work to connect with local organizations on child and youth research. Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society, along with its executive director, Tanya Pace-Crosschild (BSc í98), was the first partner in research developed by I-CYS. Along with Opokaa’sin, the Galt Museum & Archives also made important founding connections with the institute, and there is a lot of excitement about the potential of joint projects with both organizations.

An advisory committee of researchers, community agencies, First Nations, Métis and Inuit groups, and undergraduate and graduate students is helping to guide the institute’s activities, which will also include another international conference in 2015.

“There is a sense that there is a need to pay attention to children and the young as an interesting crossroads in knowledge,” Newberry says. “The institute is creating exciting opportunities for us as researchers to think about how we can extend our work across disciplines and into the community.”

This story appears in the Spring 2014 edition of SAM. For a look at the full magazine in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Alexander named Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies

trevor.kenney — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 18:21:05 +0000

The Government of Canada has named Dr. Kristine Alexander, an assistant professor of history at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Child and Youth Studies.

Alexander, who investigates how 20th-century children and youth were affected by imperialism, globalization and war, is the U of L’s first Chair in the humanities. Alexander says the Chair appointment will add capacity to an important area of historical research.

Dr. Kristine Alexander is the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's first Chair in the humanities disciplines.

“As Canada Research Chair in Children and Youth Studies, I hope to challenge and enrich our understanding of children and youth by using new sources and innovative interpretive methods to ask how young people in Canada and beyond understood and responded to British imperialism and the First World War,” says Alexander. “This multidisciplinary research will increase our understanding of the longer history of contemporary concerns about the effects of globalization and war on young people.”

Alexander’s work involves examining the photographic records produced by the global Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements – an unparalleled and understudied body of information about global and local childhoods across the 20th century. She is also using family letters to ask how the First World War affected young people’s family relationships, emotional well-being and gender roles, while tracing the ways in which families and young people interacted with the Canadian state and volunteer organizations.

Alexander arrived at the U of L in July, after completing post-doctoral fellowships at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan and Western ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. She received her PhD in history from York ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and has successfully published many peer-reviewed journal articles.

Vice-President (Research) Dr. Dan Weeks says Alexander’s work on the past has relevance for how society makes decisions for the future.

“Having a thorough understanding of the retrospective is key in ensuring that social policy going forward is sound,” says Weeks.

He adds that Alexander’s Chair appointment demonstrates the strength of the social science and humanities research conducted at the U of L.

“This is a tremendous addition to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. Dr. Alexander’s research record is exemplary,” says Weeks. “Her appointment builds on the established strength the U of L has in Canadian history, as well as increases the capacity of the U of L’s recently established Institute for Child & Youth Studies (I-CYS).”

Alexander has assumed the role of co-director of I-CYS along with Dr. Jan Newberry, Chair of the U of L’s department of anthropology. She says the CRC appointment will enable her and her colleagues to conduct important research that will be of value to scholars, educators, and policy makers, while providing research and learning opportunities for U of L students.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Institute for Child & Youth Studies is a multidisciplinary research institute committed to examining what children and youth mean as social, demographic, artistic, legal and existential categories. While strongly grounded in the humanities and social sciences, I-CYS is also a community-building project. Through events, an e-newsletter, and its website, the Institute fosters conversations and collaborations that cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines, while creating links between scholars, practitioners and community members. Its aim is to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research, both curiosity and policy-driven, about young people.

The Government of Canada is providing $108.9 million through the Canada Research Chairs Program to support 135 newly awarded and renewed Canada Research Chairs. Of that total, 26 researchers have been recruited from abroad, including 11 Canadians returning to work in their home country. The research will be conducted at 41 Canadian post-secondary institutions and will lead to benefits for Canadian families, businesses, practitioners and policy-makers.

The Canada Research Chairs Program was created with an annual budget of $300 million to establish up to 2,000 research professorships across the country and to position Canada as a world leader in post-secondary research. The program currently supports researchers in more than 70 Canadian post-secondary institutions who are conducting studies in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities disciplines.

UNews - Kristine Alexander

Media resources for Remembrance Day

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Inspiring and motivating instructor, Dr. Kristine Alexander, recognized with Graduate Mentorship Award

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��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers secure SSHRC funding

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Symposium and exhibit focus on local queer history

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Three U of L professors examine Western Canada during the First World War

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Building rapport key to success of the Raising Spirit project

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International child and youth studies conference looks to engage local practitioners

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Hidden Paths, Tangled Woods and Interesting Play Spaces

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Alexander named Canada Research Chair in Child and Youth Studies

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers secure SSHRC funding