UNews - Monique Giroux

Social sciences and humanities researchers secure greater than $1.175 million from SSHRC

trevor.kenney — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:30:55 +0000

The breadth of research excellence at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is reflected in the latest funding announcement from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), with 10 ULethbridge researchers representing four Faculties and one School all earning support for their work.

On behalf of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Karim Bardeesy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, announced in Edmonton Tuesday more than $289 million in support for 1,788 social sciences and humanities research projects and partnerships across Canada. The funded projects span a diverse range of topics — including climate change adaptation, economic recovery, social justice and impacts of emerging technologies on society — that will generate new knowledge and enable partnerships to help translate insights into solutions for people and their communities.

“Research in the social sciences and humanities is the cornerstone of a resilient, forward-thinking society,” says Bardeesy. “This announcement reflects our deep commitment to Canadian research. By supporting these projects, we are empowering scholars to develop the vital insights and collaborative solutions needed to build a more resilient, equitable and innovative future for everyone.”

The ULethbridge Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Education, Dhillon School of Business and Faculty of Arts & Science, along with the School of Liberal Education combined to earn $1.175 million in SSHRC funding support through Insight Grants, Insight Development Grants and Partnership Engage Grants.

“This funding announcement really highlights the excellent work being done throughout the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, ULethbridge Vice-President Research. “When students come to study here, they are being educated and work alongside nationally funded researchers across multiple disciplines, many of which lead their fields in research initiatives. Congratulations to those who earned this valuable support from SSHRC for their respective projects.”

McMartin also notes that Faculty of Education Dean, Dr. Lisa Starr’s project, was the top ranked SSHRC project in Canada, followed closely by Faculty of Fine Arts Dean, Dr. Heather Davis-Fisch, and her drama project.

Insight Grants

Dr. Heather Davis-Fisch’s (Drama, $413,116) project addresses the problem of English-Canadian theatre historiography's reliance on textual analysis, scripts, and print documents, which has marginalized historically significant practices, particularly from underrepresented communities. Her research team will partner with galleries, archives, and museums to explore how alternate performance histories emerge from the analysis of archival objects and materials.

Dr. Kaylan Schwarz (Liberal Education, $69,014) is investigating the construction of feminist identities, and the social contexts which inform them. Combining visual methods, participatory methods, and intergenerational approaches, her project seeks to develop understandings of feminist representation and placemaking in the Canadian Prairies.

In Sierra Leone, girls and young women are often trapped in a cycle of dependency, health complications and poverty. Dr. Lisa Starr’s (Education, $368,933) project is aimed at reshaping gender dynamics for young female teachers in Sierra Leone by redistributing resources, expectations and responsibilities among new teachers. The intent is to study the impact of an integrative approach on Gender Transformation in teachers' personal lives and teaching practice, including their sense of professional identity and agency.

Insight Development Grants

Dr. David Balcarras (Philosophy, $26,354) seeks to address a fundamental question in philosophy of language: how words come to have meaning. By combining historical perspective with technical analysis, his project aims to clarify how best to explain the unbounded nature of linguistic meaning in finite human terms. If successful, it promises a deeper understanding of what linguistic meaning really is and how language and thus inquiry itself are possible.

Dr. Katharina Stevens (Philosophy, $41,957) proposes a project that will establish the foundation for developing a normative theory of voice allocation in interpersonal argumentation. Decisions on whom we give voice to argue with us, who we listen to and to whom we respond meaningfully significantly impact the way in which deliberation in the private and civic sphere proceeds. Normative argumentation theory aims to provide guidance to everyday arguers that will enable them to argue well in all senses of the term, and in all contexts.

Dr. Abdlmutaleb Boshanna (Dhillon School of Business, $51,253), whose expertise includes corporate governance, corporate disclosure, sustainability, natural language processing (NLP), textual analysis, and machine learning, proposes a project investigating whether firms use tax sustainability disclosure (TSD) as a strategic communication mechanism to navigate fiscal uncertainty and signal investment intentions after major tax reform.

Dr. Rhiannon Mesler (Dhillon School of Business, $77,198) is delving into the world of AI-mediated systems, noting that everyday customer service decisions — such as refund approvals, late-fee enforcement, fraud flags, and service recovery responses — are increasingly shaped by these systems. The project advances the concept of moral outsourcing: the displacement of responsibility for unfavourable but procedurally defensible outcomes from human decision-makers onto AI systems.

Dr. Monique Giroux (Music, $34,275) is examining intergenerational music teaching and learning through an in-depth qualitative case study of the Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party and Fiddle Camp (KLKP), an intentionally intergenerational, community-centred fiddle camp in Saskatchewan. The central research question asks how intergenerational teaching and learning are enacted at KLKP, and how these practices may support both continued musical engagement and the care and continuity of traditions.

Academic Freedom (AF) is the focus of Dr. Dan O’Donnell’s (English, $75,000) project. Academic Freedom, as it is currently understood from a legal and policy perspective, assumed its current form in statements written in late 1960s and early 1970s. This model has recently struggled to accommodate a broader and more contested set of expectations surrounding freedom of expression and inclusivity — his project proposing to address contemporary questions by contextualizing the debate, intellectually, historically, and from a legal and policy perspective.

Partnership Engage Grant

Dr. Andrea Cuéllar’s (Anthropology, $48,825) and co-applicant Dr. Lars Hallström (Political Science), both with the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, are partnering with the Oldman Watershed Council to co-develop the Socioeconomic Pillar of its updated State of the Watershed assessment. The project will analyze socioeconomic indicators relevant to watershed governance, develop reproducible open-source methods for future assessment updates, and translate the findings into accessible narratives and visualizations. It will also support the development of a First Nations-led framework to guide Watershed assessment. The resulting Socioeconomic Pillar will provide a fuller understanding of the social and economic factors influencing land and water stewardship across the Oldman watershed.

Multi-year research project to examine cultural and historic impact of Red River Jig to Métis peoples

trevor.kenney — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:58:28 +0000

For ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher Dr. Suzanne Steele, the Red River Jig is so much more than a cultural dance and touchstone of her Métis heritage — rather its dance and tune crosses boundaries among music, dance, politics, history and spirituality. It is those intersections she and Drs. Monique Giroux and Michelle Porter are exploring as part of a multi-year research project examining the cultural and historic impact of the Red River Jig to the Métis peoples.

Dr. Suzanne Steele

Titled La Danse di la Rivyairre Rooj, Oayache Mannin, the project seeks to trace a “cultural DNA” of scholars, artists, practitioners and community members of the Red River Jig family network. According to the researchers, the Red River Jig is known by some as the Métis national anthem and is heard and danced to widely at cultural events and celebrations, as well as for spiritual practice.

Steele, the first humanities postdoctoral researcher in the ULethbridge Faculty of Fine Arts, says her current work is grounded in a Métis worldview and utilizes a Métis methodology based on community building. She likens the archival component of the work to storing delicious foods in a root cellar; an archive of music, dance, and story, and where the Métis community, and others, may share the contents if they wish.

“The Métis are an open and tolerant society, but little recognized. Many of us are 'hidden in plain view' as the scholar Susan Sleeper remarks in her book on 19th century Indigenous-French women. We are pursuing this current Red River Jig project specifically because we decided we needed a space that focuses on the Métis and their family networks, as we are very underrepresented in academia,” says Steele.

It was through a Métis music and dance network that Steele connected with Giroux, music professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Music, Culture and Politics at ULethbridge, and Porter (Memorial ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ).

“I am absolutely thrilled that Dr. Steele is joining the Faculty of Fine Arts as a postdoctoral researcher,” says Giroux. “She has significant experience doing community-based Indigenous research and brings with her a steadfast commitment to research-creation that centres relationality and processes that matter to communities. I have no doubt that her vision for a Métis-centred arts-based research practice will support and enliven my own research program, and just as importantly will support and enliven research-creation in the fine arts at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.”

Steele’s goal with the project is to culminate with a ground-breaking anthology of scholarship incorporating the words and work of Métis artist-practitioners and other interested participants. The anthology will cut across categories (disciplinary, and academic/non-academic), and integrate creative practices — where the form of the anthology reflects the creativity of practice of the traditions themselves. This will include visual arts, beadwork, poetry, short stories, and more, that express the essence and influence of the Red River Jig.

More than anything she’s excited about the journey and the relationships she’ll establish through the project visits with other artists and practitioners of the Red River Jig, as well as (re)connecting her family throughout the diaspora.

“I don’t know what’s going to come out of this current Red River Jig project, and I think that’s good scholarship, actually, embracing the unknown,” she says.

For more on the Red River Jig Project, follow:

Red River Jig website: www.redriverjig.com

Instagram: @redriverjignetwork
https://www.instagram.com/redriverjignetwork/

Twitter: @RedRiverJigNet
https://twitter.com/RedRiverJigNet

Facebook: Red River Jig Network - RRJN
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086664619723

Early career researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge secure SSHRC awards

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:06:39 +0000

A dozen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have been awarded more than $600,000 in new funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for diverse projects, including agricultural supply chain management and repatriating Métis music.

These Insight Development Grants, announced earlier this year, are designed to support emerging scholars and research in its early stages, with up to $75,000 available over one or two years.

From the Dhillon School of Business, Drs. Duckjung Shin, Adriane MacDonald, Jocelyn Wiltshire (Calgary campus) and Alireza Tajbakhsh have secured more than $187,000 in funding for their projects.

Shin’s research looks at human resource management as a social system within an organization. He examines the interference between work and life domains, the diminishing power of unions under modern human resource practices, widening status differences within an organization and its societal consequences.

MacDonald’s research will examine the potential of sense-making tools to improve communication and problem-solving in multi-stakeholder partnerships, an approach espoused in the United Nations’ global sustainable development agenda. Engaging multiple stakeholder perspectives in complex problem solving can create new problems and ultimately prevent groups from reaching their goals. MacDonald’s study will focus on how sense-making tools, such as boundary objects, metaphor and storytelling, can help individuals in these partnerships overcome the inherent difficulties of collaborating at knowledge boundaries.

Wiltshire’s research looks at the dark side of leaders’ influence behaviour in the workplace, known as dark political skill. To what extent do manipulative and deceptive leaders contribute to a political workplace climate and impact employee behaviours and well-being? Along with Drs. Kelly Williams-Whitt and Mahfooz Ansari, Wiltshire will conduct a series of surveys and interviews. Their findings will speak to effective managerial and organizational practices that may mitigate or neutralize these harmful consequences.

Tajbakhsh will examine the existing literature on agricultural supply chain management in both crop and livestock sectors in Canada. The agriculture sector is at the nexus of world hunger and climate change. Tajbakhsh’s research will look at successful sustainable practices adopted in Canada and what corporate and government sustainability regulations have influenced agricultural networks in Canada.

Five researchers in the Faculty of Fine Arts — Dr. Dana Cooley (New Media), Dr. Bryn Hughes (Music), Jackson Two Bears (Art), Dr. Amandine Pras (Music) and Dr. Devon Smither (Art) — have secured awards worth nearly $280,000.

Cooley’s project, To Hear a Shadow, is an interactive installation that translates a participant’s EEG (brain activity) data through a Rube Goldbergesque chain of digital and early scientific measuring devices that spin and flutter, turning the signals into light, sound, and movement. Behind a partial wall, a second participant tunes in to the audio transmissions through a specially equipped headset. Proximity sensors respond to the second participant’s movements which affect the colour and intensity of light in the room. The perceptual feedback loop constructed by Shadow draws our attention to the interconnectedness we have with each other and our environment.

Hughes plans to delve into the factors that allow people to activate different musical languages. He wants to determine what musical features contribute most to syntactic violations and why some musical gestures sound wrong in one kind of music but not in another.

Two Bears’ research will explore the ways in which the creative use of digital technologies can support the innovation, transmission and transformation of Indigenous creative and cultural practices, while providing a site for critical dialogue and reflection. Two Bears plans to create an immersive 360-degree video and audio art installation and a multimedia app that will feature mobile media artworks.

Pras' research focuses on the democratization of the 21st century recording studio and the production techniques and creative processes that define it. Her multidisciplinary project includes three complementary case studies — an ethnography on street recording studios in Bamako, Mali, a longitudinal survey in the international Audio Recording Engineer Practicum of the Banff Centre and an experiment that will examine the learning process of a young Malian studio practitioner when attending the Banff Practicum for one semester.

Smither is conducting a study that looks at the marginalization of women artists and artistic realism during the first three decades of the 20th century. Specifically, she will focus on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the women artists she collected and supported from 1905 to 1930. The works formed part of the founding collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which opened in 1931.

The other recipients include Drs. Monique Giroux, Canada Research Chair and a professor in Indigenous Studies; Kara Granzow, a professor of sociology; and Julie Young, a professor of geography and Canada Research Chair.

Giroux’s research centres on the repatriation of Métis music. It includes three key elements: understanding what constitutes musical repatriation, creating an inventory of Métis musical belongings housed in archives and private collections, and determining the priorities of Métis communities for the repatriation of these musical belongings. Through consultations with Métis advisory boards, she will create a strategy for musical repatriation, including the possibility of establishing programs to support musical revival and resurgence.

Granzow and Dr. Amber Dean, co-investigator and professor at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, seek to understand and contribute to preventing sexualized colonial violence through exploring the enduring relationships between an economy based on resource extraction and the ongoing high rates of sexualized violence against Indigenous women in Alberta.

Young’s research examines the impacts of Canadian refugee deterrence policies. Phase one analyzes how the Canadian government conceptualizes and operationalizes deterrence via the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, the Mexican visa policy, the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program and the recent information campaign in U.S. cities. Phase two involves fieldwork in Windsor-Detroit and Leamington to assess the local consequences of these policies.

Breadth of research highlighted by latest CRC announcements

trevor.kenney — Thu, 03 May 2018 15:28:47 +0000

A trio of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are among 186 persons who have been announced as new or renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRC) by the Government of Canada.

Drs. Monique Giroux (Indigenous studies), Trushar Patel (chemistry & biochemistry) and Julie Young (geography) were all named Tier II Canada Research Chairs as the Government of Canada unveiled a $158-million investment in the Canada Research Chairs program. An additional $8.3 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for research infrastructure is also associated with the new Chair awards.

Dr. Erasmus Okine, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s vice-president (research) says the appointments represent the breadth of research that is ongoing at the U of L.

“I am very pleased to see the federal government’s investment in these researchers and the valuable work they are doing,” says Okine. “From Indigenous studies to geography and chemistry & biochemistry, Drs. Giroux, Young and Patel are among the brightest ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in their respective fields and have made valuable contributions to the betterment of our society. I look forward to what these appointments will further yield.”

Giroux’s research explores Métis/Indigenous cultural and political revival and resurgence across Canada, with her current work focusing on Métis cultural festivals in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Drawing on her experience as an ethnomusicologist and on research emerging from the areas of critical theory and Indigenous studies, Giroux examines how members of the Métis nation are engaging with the settler state through cultural events, and how cultural events are embodying broader political goals such as rebuilding the Métis nation, developing a nation-to-nation relationship with Canada, or, alternately, reinforcing the status quo.

Patel will unravel the principles underlying RNA-protein interactions during viral infections by employing sophisticated biophysical techniques. This will enable him to develop rational, targeted therapies for a range of viral infections. His strategy is innovative as it aims to target host proteins, rather than viral proteins that are subjected to genetic variability. His strong background in structural-biophysical characterization of RNA, DNA and proteins is highly beneficial to this program. The relevant experience of Patel and collaborators, the availability of infrastructure, and a very strong commitment from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will ensure his success as a Canada Research Chair.

Young aims to establish the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge as a leading institution for critical border studies, with a focus on displacement and border control in settler colonial contexts. Her research program has three key objectives: to analyze migration management and resistance along the NAFTA corridor; to develop a community of scholars (locally, regionally, nationally, globally) around border studies in the context of settler colonial nation-states; and, to mobilize Lethbridge’s strategic location as a borderlands city and regional hub negotiating indigenous-settler histories and contemporary relations and more recent experiences with refugee resettlement.

Both Giroux and Young are Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Patel is also a Tier 2 CRC with funding coming from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

New Take Two speaker series to focus on U of L research

caroline.zentner — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:34:17 +0000

As Associate Vice-President Research, Dr. Claudia Malacrida wants to demonstrate the diversity and depth of research done at a small, liberal arts institution like the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. To that end, she created a new speaker series called Take Two. Once underway, the Take Two sessions will feature two researchers who approach a topic from different perspectives.

For the inaugural talk, Malacrida will provide the community a report on the federal review panel, of which she was a member, and its findings on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 3:30 p.m. (Markin Hall Atrium). Attendees will have the opportunity to sign a petition to increase support for research funding that will be submitted to the Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan.

Dr. Claudia Malacrida

“Part of my rationale for wanting to give this talk is to galvanize our response to the recommendations of the review panel and to garner support for the idea that fundamental research in Canada should be a level playing field for universities, regardless of their size,” says Malacrida.

Following consultations across the country, evidence gathered by the panel points to a research system that is underfed and overworked. The Alliance of Canadian Comprehensive Research Universities, to which the U of L belongs, has thrown its support behind the panel’s recommendations and is advocating for increases to annual federal spending on research and that it be distributed fairly to universities, both large and small.

The balance of the Take Two series will take a different direction, offering fresh insights on research being done at the U of L. The events will offer talks by two researchers who take different approaches to a related issue. Each researcher will have about 20 minutes to present, followed by a question-and-answer session.

“We wanted to create a novel format for the Take Two series,” says Malacrida. “We are asking these researchers to talk across disciplines in a way that will help people understand that exciting work happens here. We want to show that we have people working in all areas on campus who are contributing to our understanding of our social, cultural and physical worlds.”

The second session on Oct. 25 will focus on understanding childhood and difference. Dr. Jeffrey MacCormack (Education) conducts research on attentional issues in the classroom in children who experience difficulty socializing and regulating emotions. He’s interested in how play-based interventions can help regulate and modulate children’s behaviour in the classroom. The other speaker, Dr. Jan Newberry (Anthropology) will discuss the partnership between the U of L’s Institute for Child and Youth Studies and the Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society. Through the Raising Spirit project, they’ve been collecting stories and images for a digital storytelling library to highlight Indigenous ways of knowing and to build community capacity collaboratively.

“Despite differing approaches, both researchers’ work is not about fixing kids who don’t fit in; it’s about changing the way we think about what ‘in’ ought to look like,” says Malacrida.

The third session on Nov. 23 brings together Drs. Maura Hanrahan and Monique Giroux (Native American Studies) to talk about their research. Hanrahan examines policy, especially as it relates to the way current approaches to Indigenous health research can operate to exclude the health concerns of Métis peoples. Giroux is both a scholar and fiddler. She studies how Métis identity is produced and regulated through dramatic works, as well as through performances at fiddling contests and cultural festivals.

In the fourth talk scheduled for Feb. 1, Dr. Chris Hopkinson (Geography) will talk about his research using LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors to create three-dimensional topographical maps used by governments and industries to assess flood hazards, manage wildlife habitat or create greenhouse gas strategies. Leanne Elias, a New Media professor, will talk about her experimental visualization of agricultural data, such as crop production.

“Elias visualizes those data through sound, light and visual images to produce art but also to convey information,” says Malacrida. “Both she and Hopkinson are working very different approaches to sustainability and environmental visualization.”

The fifth session of the series features Drs. Paul Vasey (Psychology) and Suzanne Lenon (Women and Gender Studies) talking about their research into gender, sex and sexuality. Vasey does fieldwork looking at both gender and sexuality in two cultures that recognize a third gender, the fa’fafine of Samoa and the muxes of the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Lenon’s research focuses on the history and material aspects of marriage law, with respect to race, gender and sexuality, especially regarding same-sex marriage and polygamy.

Talks are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., with the Sept. 21 session taking place in the Markin Hall Atrium. Light refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome to attend.

UNews - Monique Giroux

Social sciences and humanities researchers secure greater than $1.175 million from SSHRC

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