UNews - Dr. Claudia Malacrida

New U of L series to highlight research in social sciences and humanities

caroline.zentner — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 15:48:24 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), is launching a new series called Celebrating Connection: A SSHRC Exchange Series.

The series is designed to help disseminate research findings and provide opportunities for networking and collaborating in the humanities, social sciences, arts, education and management through events such as conferences, presentations and workshops.

“U of L researchers in the social sciences and humanities are conducting leading-edge research and a series like Celebrating Connection allows them to share their results and further involve their students in learning opportunities,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president (research). “This series will be of interest to the broader academic community, as well as the public at large.”

Eight proposals have been accepted and topics include a variety of disciplines, from art history and music to archaeology and philosophy. Most of the sessions will occur during the 2019-2020 academic year but the first is scheduled for June 14 and 15.

The first instalment of the series, titled The Line Crossed Us: New Directions in Critical Border Studies, brings together emerging scholars working on aspects of border studies. Organized by the Border Studies Group at the U of L — which includes Drs. Julie Young (Geography), Tier II Canada Research Chair; Sheila McManus (History) and Paul McKenzie-Jones (Indigenous Studies) — the conference will examine Indigenous and migration politics and also put contemporary border issues and crises into historical perspective.

“We’re excited about the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of this conference,” say Young, McManus and McKenzie-Jones. “Border studies often takes place siloed in three distinct disciplines—history, geography and political science—which is what makes our conference unique and important, especially in an era when nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise amidst calls for stronger borders.”

The conference includes a screening of the film El Muro: The Wall (2017), a documentary that focuses on the ancestral lands of the Lipan Apache in Texas and governmental efforts to dispossess them. Anyone interested in attending is asked to register for a free ticket through Eventbrite.

The conference schedule can be found online at Border Studies.

Four research projects boosted by CREDO funding

caroline.zentner — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 17:29:55 +0000

The latest round of funding through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities (CREDO) program will provide $25,000 to each of four diverse research projects.

They include a local oral history project, a study into green bonds and their effect on the stock market, research into how children’s gender identity influences the way they produce sounds, and ways that countries with minority official languages can improve proficiency through education and training policies.

“The CREDO awards are the most generous and prestigious internal awards the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ offers,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president research. “Designed to support social science, humanities, arts, management and social health researchers, these funds provide seed money so our researchers in those disciplines can go on to seek more aggressive external funding. As a result, we can expect to hear much more about these exciting projects as they build momentum over the coming years.”

Dr. Carly Adams (Kinesiology)

Dr. Carly Adams

Dr. Carly Adams, a U of L kinesiology and physical education professor and member of the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT), is collaborating with Dr. Darren Aoki of Plymouth ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in the United Kingdom and U of L adjunct associate professor, on a community-based oral history project to rescue the stories of Nikkei, Canadians of Japanese descent, between the 1950s and the 1970s. The researchers want to record people’s recollections of everyday life at a time when Nikkei communities, after suffering persecution during the Second World War, were being built again.

“I am delighted to be working with Dr. Aoki on this timely project. To carry out this historical study of this moment in southern Alberta’s past, we are partnering with COHT, the Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge and Area, the Nikka Yuko Japanese-Canadian Friendship Gardens, and the Galt Museum and Archives. We hope to learn more about work, school, leisure, home and Nikkei identity,” says Adams.

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran (Management)

Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran

A relatively new option for investing is green bonds, issued to finance capital projects that are environmentally sustainable. Dr. Vishaal Baulkaran, a management professor, will examine the need for and usefulness of this type of financing instrument in fighting climate change from a capital market point of view. As environmental and sustainable projects gain importance for both individual and institutional investors, Baulkaran wants to examine if issuing green bonds creates value for shareholders by measuring the reaction of the stock market.

“Capital markets and private financing will play an increasingly important role in fighting climate change,” says Baulkaran. “This project will examine one type of financial instrument available to market participants with the goal of alleviating the impact of climate change.”

Dr. Fangfang Li (Psychology)

Dr. Fangfang Li

Previous research has shown that a child’s gender identity can mediate a gender-specific way of producing the sound ‘s.’ Dr. Fangfang Li, a speech scientist and U of L professor, wants to know whether gender identity affects the development of other sounds to a similar degree, both in English and other languages. Working with Dr. Paul Vasey, a U of L sex researcher, their research will examine an established set of data on 160 children, including speech recordings in English and Mandarin Chinese.

“Boys and girls talk differently. The proposed research will allow us to understand how children learn to talk in a socially appropriate way,” says Li.

Dr. Alain Takam (Modern Languages)

Dr. Alain Takam

Dr. Alain Takam, a professor in the Modern Languages department, wants to investigate ways of raising proficiency in minority official languages. Both Canada and Cameroon have French and English as official languages and Takam will examine how education and training policies can increase mastery in a minority official language. Takam intends to compare the policy and planning frameworks around minority official languages in both countries and stakeholders’ perceptions and attitudes about language courses in general and minority official languages in particular, especially in technical training programs.

“This research will benefit students, teachers, parents and language planners,” says Takam. “Our results will help inform policy about the special demands and challenges of language acquisition in the education system and in technical training. Further, our results will eventually help facilitate trades and technical workers to be more mobile in a bilingual economy.”

CREDO was established at the U of L in 2008 to provide funding to launch bold and exciting new projects that enhance research excellence at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. The program helps support faculty as they build a research or artistic profile that helps them gain a competitive edge in national competitions or other external funding opportunities and provides skills and training opportunities for students. Since 2008, the U of L has bestowed more than $1 million which has led CREDO researchers to awards of more than $1.6 million in Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding.

The application deadline for the next round of CREDO funding is Nov. 28. Funding is valued at $25,000 over two years. More information is available on the Research & Innovation Services website.

Research excellence continues to grow at the U of L

caroline.zentner — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 22:40:35 +0000

On the strength of a year in which four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge faculty members earned nominations for Royal Society of Canada (RSC) membership, junior faculty members recently had the chance to obtain advice about their research careers directly from the president of the RSC College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

In 2016, three U of L faculty members, Drs. Louise Barrett, Bruce McNaughton and Joe Rasmussen, were elected to the RSC and Dr. Artur Luczak was elected to the RSC College. Membership in the College is reserved for faculty researchers who are within 15 years of having received their doctoral degree.

“We wanted to build on this success so Dr. Alidad Amirfazli came out to work with invited faculty — people who are in this junior realm and have a strong research career,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president research. “It was a real privilege for us to have him here as a representative of the College of the Royal Society.”

“I’m quite happy to be here in Lethbridge. As president of the College and as a fellow academic, one of our biggest responsibilities is giving back to the community to make sure the next generation is underway,” says Amirfazli, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at York ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

Dr. Alidad Amirfazli, president of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

With that goal in mind, Amirfazli presented a workshop to help ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in the beginning phases of their research careers. Conducting high-quality research provides a necessary foundation, but the impact and influence of such scholarly work also needs to be communicated. Frequently, this is accomplished through a step-by-step process that begins with recognition at an institutional level and proceeds to the provincial, national and international levels.

“If you’re one or two years into your work, just focus on your work and build your foundation,” says Amirfazli. “If you have been in the system for two or three years, I think it’s tremendously important to start to think about your recognition profile in multiple levels: A, you owe it to yourself; you’ve worked so hard so you might as well get that recognition that you deserve at the level that is appropriate for where you are in your career; B, you owe it to the institution and your colleagues because, by your profile being raised, you are raising the profile of the institution and your colleagues and that’s part of giving back in an indirect way.

“All this starts to bring various people to you, which is going to help with your own work going forward and make you that much more successful. So it becomes sort of a virtuous circle—the more people are aware of what you’re doing and the recognition and the impact, the more they will be attracted to listening to your ideas and thoughts and what you’re doing.”

Amirfazli says people are always looking for new ideas. Even if an application fails to succeed in a particular competition, other people working in the field start to take notice and recognize an up-and-comer.

Publishing is of primary importance to an academic as it provides evidence of his or her work, says Amirfazli, adding that includes not only articles and books, but also exhibitions and community projects.

Post-secondary institutions are given a yearly allocation of seats they can nominate people for, and members of the Royal Society can also nominate independently. However, a nomination doesn’t necessarily lead to acceptance.

“This effort of the College is to sit down with early-stage researchers and make those long-term plans about what steps need to be taken to achieve the level of excellence in order to be successful once nominated,” says Malacrida. “To be a member of the Royal Society is hugely prestigious. We can have this aspiration institutionally to continue to grow that kind of strength.”

Typically, large universities, especially those with a medical school and a reputation for research excellence, have larger memberships in the Royal Society.

“We’re moving into that realm,” said Malacrida. “As an institution, we need to be able to carry our colleagues with us. Dr. Amirfazli’s visit is an important support for that goal.”

UNews - Dr. Claudia Malacrida

New U of L series to highlight research in social sciences and humanities

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Four research projects boosted by CREDO funding

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