UNews - Jodie Asselin

More than $1 million in SSHRC grants to support vital social sciences and humanities research projects

caroline.zentner — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:23:51 +0000

Several ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have received Insight and Insight Development grants worth more than $1 million through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Their projects will delve into varied topics including immigration, artist-run centres, charitable giving, Depression-era Canadian poetry, and medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

“Research in the social sciences and humanities plays an essential role in understanding and improving the human condition,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president of research at ULethbridge. “These grants enable our researchers to enrich cultural understanding, foster a deeper appreciation of human experiences and make an impact on the lives of everyday citizens.”

The following researchers have been awarded Insight Grants:

Dr. Debra Basil, a Dhillon School of Business professor of marketing, will look at the immigrant settlement experience in small to mid-sized cities in Western Canada and develop a community-based social marketing program to improve newcomer settlement experiences.

Dr. Devon Smither, associate dean in the Faculty of Fine Arts, plans to examine and document the history and impact of artist-run centres, which were created in the 1960s and 1970s as alternatives to commercial galleries.

Dr. Julia Brassolotto’s project focuses on the complexities of MAiD in Canada by examining the ethical issues surrounding MAiD through official government statements and lived experiences.

The following researchers have been awarded Insight Development Grants:

Dr. Hamid Akbary, a sociology professor, will examine potential biases in Canadian immigration policies and the public perception of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Dr. David Hobbs, an English professor, looks to recover vital portions of Western Canadian literary culture from the Great Depression by examining the work of poet Dorothy Livesay.

Anthropology professor Dr. Jodie Asselin’s project centres on the transformation of culturally significant landscapes due to climate change and climate change mitigation measures. While such landscape change is occurring around the world, Asselin will focus on sites in rural Ireland to both record and acknowledge site loss and the implications for rural futures, providing a lesson applicable to communities across the global north.

Dr. Jessica Jacobson-Konefall, a Faculty of Fine Arts professor, plans to examine longstanding ancestral cultural forms as they appear in contemporary art in Winnipeg. The project brings attention to Anishinaabe, Eastern European and Caribbean diasporic arts.

Charities in Canada face increasing demand but many lack the resources to serve everyone. Dr. Rhiannon Mesler, a Dhillon School of Business professor at ULethbridge’s Calgary Campus, will look at consumer backlash to charities that accept donations from firms that generate their money by legal but morally questionable means, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling or non-renewable energy, and how they might navigate the challenge.

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.

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas grant supports ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research expertise

trevor.kenney — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:59:41 +0000

Eight ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research projects focused on water storage, carbon storage, insect health, fish habitat and the endangered sage grouse will go ahead thanks to a $500,000 grant from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA).

“We’re joining forces with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge to look deeper into environmental issues impacting southern Alberta,” said Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, in a news release. “This grant will help us better maximize and manage Alberta’s water supply, reduce emissions, recover species at risk and protect the environment in the years ahead. This is a great example of government and university scientists working together.”

The three-year research grant will ultimately help both government and ULethbridge researchers better understand and respond to environmental challenges in southern Alberta and across the province.

"The Ministry's significant investment in these innovative and provincially important research projects led by ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers working with Environment and Protected Areas colleagues is greatly appreciated,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “The research includes answering important questions about water resources and habitat management, carbon storage in landscapes, ensuring diverse and thriving insects, birds, and fish populations, as well as human actions and interventions that affect water and lands."

The projects target diverse areas of research. Drs. Matthew Bogard and Sam Woodman (BSc '15), a postdoctoral fellow, will collaborate with researchers from AEPA and Ducks Unlimited Canada to map and define patterns of prairie wetland carbon and nutrient stocks.

In another project, Drs. Theresa Burg and Melissa Chelak, a postdoctoral fellow, will work with AEPA scientists to see how endangered sage grouse populations are responding to recent habitat restoration, namely oil and gas reclamation efforts.

Drs. Laura Chasmer, Chris Hopkinson and Craig Coburn will be focusing on the vulnerability of peatlands to wildfire. Peatlands in Alberta have been drying out in recent years, reducing their ability to slow the spread of forest fires and resulting in increased carbon loss into the atmosphere. In addition, Chasmer and Hopkinson will also work on a project to assess the province’s lake water resources.

Climate phases, such as El Nino, can impact the productivity of native grassland and wetland ecosystems. Dr. Larry Flanagan and AEPA will examine how these year-to-year variations in weather contribute to fluctuations in productivity and carbon sequestration in these ecosystems and how these factors in turn can affect dryland farming, ranching, irrigated crop production and bird habitat.

How rainbow and brown trout in urban rivers such as the Bow River are affected by the combined effects of exposure to two stormwater associated chemicals as well as increased water temperatures and decreases in dissolved oxygen is the subject of research by Drs. Steve Wiseman and Andreas Eriksson, a postdoctoral fellow, in collaboration with researchers from AEPA and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan.

Grasshopper expert, Dr. Dan Johnson, will be conducting extensive field sampling of Orthoptera to determine their diversity, abundance and biomass in wildlife food webs. Orthoptera includes insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.

A project team led by Dr. Jodie Asselin, an anthropology professor, in collaboration with government researchers, will look at the impact of human activities on the ecology of the Upper Oldman Watershed to assist in the development of policies that balance the needs of recreational users with the protection of at-risk species such as bull trout.

“These projects will help to monitor and build understanding of the southern Alberta environment and potentially lead to better responses to droughts, floods, species at risk and less predictable climate changes,” says McMartin.

New Community Bridge Lab serves as hub for connecting students to each other, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and community

trevor.kenney — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 18:08:38 +0000

Community Bridge Lab Showcase takes place Thursday, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Dr. Foster James Penny Building (324 5 St S)

One of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s greatest contributions to southern Alberta is the annual influx of bright, talented, eager minds ready to contribute to society. Building on that, ULethbridge opened the new Community Bridge Lab (CBL) in January — a specific space designed to support multi-disciplinary and community-engaged student research projects across the social sciences and humanities.

ULethbridge student Rebeca Spencer working in the field with environmentalists and stewards of land in southern Alberta.

The Community Bridge Lab acts as a hub for academic and community organizations that have research and project needs to connect with ULethbridge students who have project ideas and skills to contribute. The CBL enhances student training through expanded work-integrated learning opportunities and creates even more opportunities for community organizations to draw on the unique skill sets of ULethbridge students, even as it supports the core elements of a liberal education.

“Traditional lab spaces are a hallmark of the sciences but more often than not, are lacking for the social sciences — making this lab a wonderful addition to campus,” says Dr. Shelly Wismath, Dean of the School of Liberal Education. “Student-engaged and community-centric work is a strength of our university and until now, independent and group-research in the social sciences and humanities has largely been facilitated through independent studies, applied studies, and honours theses. This lab allows us to build on the strengths of these existing programs by further supporting our students to work collaboratively with faculty, community organizations, and each other.”

To build the same kind of shared lab space aimed at building teams and highlighting the strengths of qualitative research, Wismath and Dr. Jan Newberry (anthropology) proposed the idea of the CBL. In its first year of operation, they were joined by Drs. Jodie Asselin (anthropology), Julie Young (geography and environment) and Kaylan Schwarz (liberal education) as the core advisory group that serves as supervisors and mentors to undergraduate lab fellows working on community-engaged projects.

How it Works

Students engaged in community-oriented research through independent studies, honours projects, or research positions apply to become a lab fellow. Fellows then receive peer support through meetings with other student researchers, training through workshops and speakers, mentorship through faculty support, and lab space withing which to work and brainstorm. Fellows can also apply for CBL funding where appropriate.

“We anticipate holding an annual Community Bridge Day, meant to support creative and community-oriented discussions, where fellows will have an opportunity to publicly share their work,” says Wismath. “During this, the first summer of our collaboration, we supported five lab fellows who shared resources and met regularly to debrief about their experiences working on their independent projects.”

On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Community Bridge Lab Showcase takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Dr. Foster James Penny Building (324 5 St S), where each student fellow will give a short presentation on their project.

The projects included Lily Overacker’s (anthropology and history) study on what community-engaged research looks like across Canada and in different community contexts, while also doing a local community scan of opportunities for community-engaged research.

Amy Cran (anthropology) examined how a grassroots outreach organization, SAGE Clan Patrol, makes use of traditional Blackfoot Knowledge in their work of assisting people experiencing addiction and homelessness in Lethbridge.

Rebeca Spencer (anthropology and psychology) conducted research using immersive, participant observation with environmentalists and stewards of land in southern Alberta to understand their motivations and their relationship to hope, while Joni Smith (education) worked on the MasterCard Foundation-supported Blackfoot Women’s Empowerment Project to assist in developing a social enterprise for her fellow Blackfoot women artisans and crafters.

Alyssa White (anthropology) continued her work building an educational resource about anthropology in collaboration with both faculty and students that is meant to be inclusive, diverse, and accessible to everyone in the community.

The fellows made use of the lab space, its computers, coding software and transcription tools, but say the most important benefits of the CBL were the opportunities for collaboration with one another, faculty mentors and community organizations.

“It was a great opportunity for me to be mentored by a variety of professors from different disciplines and expand my perspective on interdisciplinary qualitative research,” says Overacker.

Smith’s greatest takeaway was how the CBL connected her to the community.

“I was able to gather data through hosting events and doing surveys to establish a thorough understanding of what is lacking in the artisan industry, using social media and our BWE website to promote our events,” she says. “I also hosted a night market where I met so many Blackfoot women who are dedicated to improving themselves through their passion of being an artisan.”

UNews - Jodie Asselin

More than $1 million in SSHRC grants to support vital social sciences and humanities research projects

Related Topics

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas grant supports ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research expertise

Related Topics

New Community Bridge Lab serves as hub for connecting students to each other, ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ and community

Related Topics

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas grant supports ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research expertise

New Community Bridge Lab serves as hub for connecting students to each other, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and community