UNews - Dr. Bonnie Lee

Two students share this year’s Michael Chan prize

caroline.zentner — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 17:57:49 +0000

Two unique projects earned Rutika Gandhi (BA’14) and Fallan Curtis wins in this year’s Michael Chan Prize in Asian Studies.

The annual prize, named after Michael Wing-Cheung Chan (1952 – 2001), is given to continuing undergraduate or graduate students in any degree program with an interest in Asia-focused scholarship, research or projects. Chan was a Canadian Chinese scientist and humanitarian known for his brilliance in mathematics and his passion for promoting Canada-Asia understanding.

As this year’s winners, Gandhi and Curtis receive $500 each — Gandhi for her essay looking at Buddhism in the digital world, and Curtis for her photo essay comparing biomedicine (Western medicine) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Curtis, an undergraduate student, participated in Dr. Bonnie Lee’s ‘Health and Culture in China’ field

study course. In the beginning, Curtis planned her project around comparing the health systems in Canada and China but first-hand experience with the Chinese system changed the focus.

While the field study group was in Hangzhou, Curtis started feeling unwell. The pain intensified, centering in the lower right quadrant of her abdomen and appendicitis was suspected. As her condition worsened, Curtis sought treatment at a hospital. Language proved to be a barrier despite the services of a translator. However, Curtis understood she needed to provide a deposit before treatment could begin. She made emergency calls to family members and secured the deposit. Tests confirmed the infection.

“Basically, over the course of five days, I received copious amounts of antibiotics intravenously and different tests,” she says. “Once they found out that those antibiotics were working and decreasing my white blood cell count, they decided not to operate. If I had presented with the same symptoms here they would have operated immediately. Now that I have had it once, the likelihood of it re-occurring is quite high.”

Students in the field study also visited a TCM hospital and one of the doctors there gave her an acupuncture treatment for appendicitis.

“I don’t think this would have exactly been a productive treatment when the appendicitis was acute, but it was interesting after to get the opportunity to be cared for in a different way,” she says.

Curtis refocused her project and decided to use her experiences and information on the types of health-care systems in a photo essay. She learned that the younger generation in China is more supportive of modern scientific medicine and some people are concerned that TCM will disappear as a result. Integrated medicine, which blends TCM with biomedicine, is also becoming more prevalent.

“There are positives to TCM that biomedicine cannot account for,” she says. “I think one of the most important things TCM has to offer is a better patient-practitioner relationship. So, integrated medicine is a combination of both treatments and studies have shown it to be extremely effective.”

Curtis can’t say enough about the value of her field study experience. The sights, sounds and smells of being in another culture can’t be learned in a book. Winning the Michael Chan prize is a bonus.

“I’m quite honoured. The prize will help me out financially because of this costly trip, so that’s nice,” she says. “I really wanted to share my experiences and I was inspired by the interactive learning experience.”

Gandhi, a master’s student under the supervision of Dr. John Harding, found her niche in religious studies while she was an undergraduate. During a course on Asian religions and the West, Gandhi learned about different manifestations of Buddhism, depending on the country, sect and school. She also learned about the ways Buddhism has been re-interpreted in modern times, including in the digital world.

Gandhi became intrigued by Second Life, an online three-dimensional virtual reality game. Some locales in the game are Buddhist in nature so Gandhi signed up, created an avatar and explored the virtual Buddhist world. Participants can visit temples, burn incense, pray, meditate, do yoga, make donations to a temple and chat with other participants.

“It made me think ‘What does this mean?’ Is it replacing religious activities or is it just another way for Buddhists to connect with each other? Is it just part of globalization?” she says. “I did a bit of research and concluded that it’s not a way for Buddhists to replace offline religious activity; it’s just an extension of it.”

Issues that occur in the real world can also be reflected in the online world. Gandhi turned her attention to a forum known as E-sangha, a popular website that claimed to be transnational and not associated with any particular form of Buddhism.

“Every forum has guidelines that people need to follow or their profiles can be suspended or terminated. E-sangha followed the eight-fold path, which ties their website to some form of authenticity, but their guidelines forbade certain schools of Buddhism from joining, which went against the site’s claim that it was universal,” Gandhi says.

As modern Buddhism evolved from different places around the world, the dynamics between the monastics and laity changed. Traditionally, monks have been authority figures in Buddhism. Now lay people sometimes hold more sway in the online world and the current mindfulness movement in North America is led by mostly lay people and even some who are not Buddhists.

“Overall, what I’m trying to show is that the real world and the online world are not completely separate and that the online world does not replace the offline world. They sort of work in sync with each other and although the online world does not replace the offline world, it can extend some of the issues that are going on,” she says.

Winning the Michael Chan prize was unexpected but welcome news and the money will help her pay tuition fees.

“I always try to keep a positive outlook on things but I also don’t want to set myself up for disappointment,” Gandhi says. “I knew it was a good paper but when I actually saw the email that I won I was pleasantly surprised and really happy.”

U of L master’s student awarded Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship

caroline.zentner — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 21:00:54 +0000

In a first for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Yanjun Shi (BA ’14) has been chosen as one of 13 Alberta graduate students to receive the prestigious Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship in Patient-Oriented Research. The award will provide her with $30,000 in funding for one year, along with mentoring and training opportunities in patient-oriented research.

“I am very grateful to have received this award and for the support and encouragement from my supervisor, Dr. Bonnie Lee,” says Shi. “I’m excited to get started but also aware of the challenges with this project.”

Shi is currently in her first year of a Masters of Education in Counselling Psychology with a focus on mental health and addiction. Her thesis project will be carried out in conjunction with Lee’s principal research study, which involves comparing the outcomes of Couples Congruence Therapy (CCT) and treatment-as-usual (TAU) approaches within two Alberta Health Services sites for couples coping with alcohol and/or gambling addiction. The participating couples have at least one partner who has an alcohol and/or gambling addiction. Shi’s study, called Patient Engagement in Gauging the Relational Gap in Addiction Treatment, is aimed at learning patient perspectives on couples therapy in addiction treatment. The benefit of couples therapy in aiding addiction recovery is well supported by research evidence, but it is not widely implemented in addiction services. By studying the participating couples in Lee’s principal project, Shi hopes to better understand the counselling needs for couples with addiction problems.

Research shows that many people who have addiction problems also have family and couple relationship difficulties, says Shi. In couples where one partner has an addiction, the non-addicted partner also deals with a great deal of social and psychological distress. It is not uncommon for couples who go into couples therapy to present with addiction-related problems.

In her study, Shi will use surveys post-treatment to look at the couples’ motivations, expectations and past experiences of couples seeking counselling and addiction services. She will also conduct interviews with the couples after they have completed CCT and TAU to explore their treatment experiences.

“I’m expecting to find out if there is strong need for better access and greater implementation of couples therapy in addiction services. Then I want to find out what these participating couples found helpful or beneficial and effective during treatment for their addiction recovery and couple relationship recovery,” she says.

The patient-engagement portion of Shi’s study involves recruiting four to six former patients who have accessed Alberta Health Services addiction services and have sought couples counselling while coping with addiction problems. These people will serve as a kind of advisory board, giving input on the design of Shi’s survey questionnaire and interview questions. The patient advisors will also review the executive summary of the findings and give feedback.

Shi’s interest in counselling was sparked when she was a high school student in China.

“When I was a teenager, I liked to read books on Freud’s theories and psychotherapy,” she says. “Initially, when I thought about psychology, I was thinking about counselling. The psychology here at the U of L was research oriented so that was where my research career started. Now, I have this great opportunity to bridge counselling and research in psychology."

Seven years ago, Shi left China and came to the U of L to pursue undergraduate studies.

“At first, I was advised to apply for the neuroscience program but I took a few turns and graduated with a psychology major. I went to study foreign languages first—French and Spanish. Then, I took a few neuroscience courses as part of my psychology major. With my language background, I worked with Dr. Fangfang Li, whose research focused on language acquisition and speech development, and completed my undergraduate thesis with her supervision.”

Following the completion of her BA, Shi’s passion for counselling was rekindled when she met Lee.

“If it hadn’t been for Bonnie opening the door for me to CCT and involved me in her research project on immigrant families and culture, I wouldn’t be able to get into counselling psychology at all,” she says. “I’m thankful to both Bonnie and Fangfang; they both gave me a reference to this program and they are both my very significant mentors.”

Although Shi hasn’t yet decided what her next steps will be after finishing her master’s, she did share some of her long-term goals.

“Eventually, I want to help improve the knowledge exchange between Canada and China in mental health and counselling. When I lived in China, counselling services were hard to find,” she says. “I think I can help out and contribute in developing counselling psychology in my home country.”

The Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship supports students enrolled in a thesis-based master’s or doctoral program at an Alberta university an opportunity to conduct health-related research with a patient-oriented approach. The Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit is jointly funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Alberta Innovates.

Board of Governors Research Chairs announced

caroline.zentner — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 16:04:30 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Board of Governors appointed or reappointed eight Board of Governors Research Chairs at its regular meeting on April 21, 2016. The Board of Governors Research Chair program acknowledges the research accomplishments of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ faculty members.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is home to world-leading researchers across many disciplines,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, Vice-President (Research). “These recipients represent the outstanding work that occurs every day on our campus – research that improves our communities near and far.”

Tier 1

Dr. Reginald Bibby, Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Reappointment July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018)

Dr. Bibby is a respected sociologist whose research is focused on monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of national surveys of adults and teenagers. His areas of specialty include religion and youth.

Dr. Bryan Kolb, Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Reappointment July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018)

Dr. Kolb is a renowned leader in neuroscience research. His research focuses on how neurons in the cerebral cortex change in response to experiences, drugs, hormones and injury, and how these changes influence behaviour.

Dr. Robert McDonald, Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Reappointment July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021)

Through his research, Dr. McDonald seeks to understand the organization of memory in the mammalian brain. He has developed a theory of age-related cognitive decline that proposes this disorder is heterogeneous and includes multiple factors that interact to lead to dementia, mini-strokes, seizures and other conditions.

Dr. Stewart Rood, Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Reappointment July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2021)

Dr. Rood devotes much of his time to river resources management, namely researching plant physiology and the ecophysiology of river valley cottonwoods.

Tier 2

Dr. Carly Adams, Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Organizations & Society (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019)

Dr. Adams is a social and cultural historian whose research contributes to the body of literature that explores the place of sport, recreation and leisure within the social and cultural context of Canada. Dr. Adams focuses on women’s sport and its impact on society.

Dr. Rob Laird, Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Origins & Explorations (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019)

Dr. Laird is an evolutionary ecologist who uses field, lab and theory-based approaches to study a variety of problems in population, community and evolutionary ecology.

Dr. Bonnie Lee, Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Healthy Futures (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019)

Dr. Lee is a registered marriage and family therapist and has spent the past decade leading a program of research in developing a model of Congruence Couples Therapy for problem gamblers.

Dr. Pei Shao, Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Organizations and Society (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019)

Dr. Shao has an active research program covering such topics as credit markets, financial institutions, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions.

UNews - Dr. Bonnie Lee

Two students share this year’s Michael Chan prize

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U of L master’s student awarded Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship

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