UNews - Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund

Driving Social Change

david.kirby — Wed, 14 May 2014 20:23:43 +0000

Collaboration and innovation, it seems, go hand-in-hand. After all, as the saying goes, two heads are better than one. But if two (or more) people are more likely to create something new than a singleton working solo, a critical question must be asked: what’s the best way to bring multiple minds together?

Researcher Leanne Elias (BFA '95, MEd '03) may have the answer. A designer, artist and associate professor of new media at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Elias has developed a unique model for creating productive working relationships, particularly among those with disparate views. It’s all part of her passion for building strong communities, and ultimately, helping to drive social change.

“I’m really interested in connecting people,” says Elias, the latest recipient of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Students’ Union’s Teaching Excellence Award. The honour recognizes outstanding efforts to increase students’ learning experiences. “Collaborative work doesn’t happen through cold calling. It happens when you provide opportunities for people to meet in person. Before anything else can happen, you have to build trust.”

From there, she says, great ideas can take shape and exciting initiatives can take off. But Elias does more than just talk about trust; she demonstrates the importance of it in her multidisciplinary projects.

Leanne Elias (L) with a group, including graduate student Christine Clark (R).

One example is Ecotone, a three-year initiative that focused on environmental stress in southern Alberta. Well aware that environmentalism and climate change can be divisive topics in this oil-rich and agriculturally prolific province, Elias wanted to help build a collective of concerned citizens who were interested in sustainability, and protecting Alberta’s land and water resources. To build such a community, she and a local entomologist organized 140 people who, at first blush,
had little in common – artists, scientists
and ranchers.

During the grassroots project, which was funded by the Alberta Rural Development Network, each group explained their work to the others. To start, the scientists presented their research on land use and the health of the Prairies. Next, 15 professional contemporary artists spent time on ranches across southern Alberta, learning about the realities of agricultural life. Finally, the artists translated their ranching experiences into creative works that were exhibited at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in downtown Lethbridge.

All three groups reported new insights from their participation in Ecotone. The scientists, for instance, realized that artists conduct research, and in turn, the artists learned more about scientific investigations and food production. Meanwhile, the ranchers developed an appreciation for artistic endeavours.

Ultimately, Ecotone’s model of collaboration eliminated communication barriers among people who had never before interacted. Equally important, the participants continue to meet and discuss environmental issues to this day. It’s an outcome that pleases Elias and will no doubt be mentioned during a presentation that she and her graduate student Christine Clark (BFA í10) will deliver during a conference in Sweden this June. The Design Research Society Conference will enable Elias and Clark, a master of fine arts student in new media, to share the paper they co-authored on the success of Ecotone.

Committed to the creative and professional growth of the next generation of researchers, artists and designers, Elias often collaborates with students on her research projects. “It’s exciting to see ideas being sparked in students,” she says. “I learn as much from them as they learn from me.”

Committed to the creative and professional growth of the next generation of researchers, artists and designers, Elias often collaborates with students on her research projects.

To that end, Elias regularly takes students to South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual music, film and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas. A dazzling showcase of digital creativity with presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, the SXSW interactive festival, in particular, is a wonderland for new media students.

“You attend talks given by your heroes and network with like-minded people and innovators,” says Clark. “Through my work with Leanne, I’ve really been opened up to the idea of being more involved in communities of practice.”

In fact, Clark was part of a group of graduate students who, at the request of Elias, interviewed artists, educators and practitioners of new media at SXSW and in New York City about how they adapt to changes in the medium. The videos were then edited by undergraduate students and posted on a website that Clark designed. An evolving video catalogue that explores the collaboration and overlap between new media and other
disciplines, Newmediaintersections.com, is funded by the U of L’s Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund. Elias serves as the project’s principle investigator and is aided by U of L professors Dr. Janice Rahn (Education), Denton Fredrickson (Art), Dr. Dana Cooley (New Media) and Dr. John Usher (Management).

“The site shows how new media is impacting other disciplines and can work together with, for example, management and the sciences,” says Elias. “There are so many possibilities.”

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

Research teams unite to fight cancer

trevor.kenney — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:54:32 +0000

A chance meeting at a local science fair, a lab tour and some discussions over coffee have led to an innovative research partnership between a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge physics research team that looks into the far reaches of space, and a cancer research team from the same ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ that is chasing down rogue cancer cells deep inside in the human body.

Dr. Roy Golsteyn (Biological Sciences) and Dr. David Naylor (Physics and Astronomy) knew each other in passing – their labs are one floor and a staircase away and their offices are only a few hundred feet apart in ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Hall.

Their completely different academic worlds would not generally collide, but now that they have, they are finding a lot of possibilities in their collaborative work.

Naylor and his team design imaging equipment that is helping to bring the far reaches of space into clearer focus. Their technology, which is presently functioning on the Herschel Space Observatory more than 1.5 million km from the earth, helps to identify regions of star formation by imaging their size, shape and composition based on the spectral signatures they emit.

As Herschel scans the universe and captures images of large fields of galaxies, their sheer number requires the use of sophisticated computer algorithms to determine the nature of the individual sources, for example differentiating between a spiral and an elliptical galaxy.

Naylor says that the same process, which leaves researchers with a smaller field of unknown objects to further explore, can be applied to searching for, and focusing on, cells that develop abnormally and which could either be cancerous or prone to cancer.

"We have been collaborating with a local spin-off company, Blue Sky Spectroscopy Inc., to see if some of our imaging processes could work on breast cancer cells, and have been testing slides provided to us by research colleagues at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, Alta.," says Naylor, noting that he generally doesn't have access to live cancer cells.

"Thanks to Roy and his team, we can now work on live cells, and test how our computer modeling software will work."

The idea that the same process can serve two completely different research disciplines landed them an Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions award of $50,000 and an internal Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF) award of $100,000 over two years. It also led them to join forces with colleague and cancer researcher Dr. Olga Kovalchuk (Biological Sciences) to employ the complete spectrum of cancer research at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to this important problem.

Golstyen, who has a cancer cell culture system plus decades of research experience in cancer cell observation in Canada and France, is pleased that both groups are turning their attention to how to better track and identify cells which are prone to cancer.

"In biology, looks can be deceiving," says Golsteyn. "When we look at a population of cancer cells with the standard technology (used in biology), we cannot see differences, but we know some cells are different because they will become resistant to a treatment. We discovered the moment when cancer cells "decide" to live or die after a treatment, but our predicament is that we don't know which cell is 'bad' or 'good', so to speak. We believe that looking at cells in a new way using the technology from Dr. Naylor's laboratory will help us solve this problem."

Golsteyn's work involves tracking down cells that do not get killed off by cancer treatments and instead hide out until they can essentially explode and repopulate a system with more cancer cells. Identifying these rogue cells is the prime focus of his research, but identifying them in a mass of other cells is quite time consuming.

"We are excited to be a part of this project because we see that over time it will allow us to develop a more accurate method of identifying cells which have developed normally, versus those cells which need further examination."

Since a petri dish of live cancer cells – potentially hundreds of thousands of small dots under a microscope – looks very much like a wide field of unexplored galaxies and star formations, (sample images attached) both researchers are confident their ideas can be refined, but like most pure science projects, it may take years before they successfully apply technology that was developed for imaging star formations in space to tracking live cancer cells.

The IRDF awards are funded by the U of L's Office of Research and Innovation Services to jump-start ideas that display inter-departmental or inter-faculty co-operation and innovation.

IRDF project investigates world of new media

trevor.kenney — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:53:23 +0000

The very aspect of new media that makes it so engaging is also what makes the discipline challenging. While change is both exciting and invigorating, the pace at which new media practices and software evolve is almost too quick to fully explore the medium.

"I've been really fortunate in my career that I've been working at a time that has seen enormous changes in the way I work," says Leanne Elias, assistant professor in the department of New Media.

"At the same time, it just changes so rapidly that as an artist, it can be very frustrating because we never have the chance to fully exploit the tools and options that we have available to us in software before something new comes along and we then move on to that."

The IRDF project team (l to r) Cheryl Meheden, Leanne Elias, Dr. John Usher, Dr. Janice Rahn and Michael Campbell are exploring the world of new media.

In an attempt to capture how artists, educators and practitioners of new media approach and adapt to continual change in the medium, Elias and four other U of L researchers will produce the E-book of New Media Research Methods and Practice as one of three funded projects through the new Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF).

"I see this as a perfect opportunity to examine how others are working in our world," says Elias, the principal investigator.

The project also includes Dr. Janice Rahn (education), Dr. John Usher (management), Michael Campbell (art) and Cheryl Meheden (management).

Elias says the group plans to conduct upwards of 50 video interviews with new media artists from around the world who are driving innovations in software and communication design, or exploring unexpected ways of working with technology. The goal is to discover how these people are using new media tools and how they, as educators, can work together to expand research and teaching practices.

"We have already learned that we all approach new media practice differently," says Elias. "There are some big unanswered questions about how we all teach, such as why does the way we teach change between disciplines, what are the crossovers between disciplines, and are we delivering the right curriculum?"

Data collection (interviews) will begin this summer and continue through to spring 2013, at which time a host of essays will be written interpreting the interview results. Both graduate and undergraduate students will assist in the process.

"The team members will analyze the results collaboratively through different research methodologies and I think that's where it really becomes interdisciplinary.

The exciting aspect about the e-book is that it will use current technology and be produced as an interactive book meant for tablet devices. This allows its creators to produce a living entity, dynamically changing over time. Although the book is expected to be released in 2014, updates to the book could be released as new interviews are created. Users of the book will be able to view the full video interviews, see art and design projects, read the interpretive essays or even hone in on one particular interview question and see the results from each respondent.

In the end, both students and educators will benefit from the project, as long as they are willing to adapt to the ever-changing landscape it explores.

This story first appeared in the June 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in flipbook format, follow this link.

IRDF - Examining activism and social engagement

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:15:17 +0000

Established by the Vice-President Research, the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF) is a one-time non-renewable research fund that will provide the foundation for developing the next generation of interdisciplinary concentrations of research excellence at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. The General Faculties Council Research Committee reviewed applications for IRDF funding and three proposals received support (up to $100,000 each over two years). This is one of three projects funded in 2012.

As Bob Dylan crooned in 1964, "The times they are a-changin'." While much has happened since Dylan first sang those famous words, they remain true today – the question on the minds of a group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers is 'how are they a-changin'?'

Dr. Bruce MacKay, left, with Dr. Josephine Mills.

Funded by the U of L's new Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF), Complex Social Change: teaching, performing, exhibiting, designing, mapping is a project that focuses on the issues around being engaged and affecting social change.

"We are a group of change-makers, investigating how change is made," says Dr. Josephine Mills, director of the U of L Art Gallery and principal investigator on this project. The other change-makers include Dr. Bruce MacKay (liberal education), Lisa Doolittle (theatre and drama), Dr. Tiffany Muller-Myrdahl (women and gender studies) and Emily Luce (new media).

"We are interested in the large issues around what constitutes effective action and whether young people today are engaged in social issues," explains Mills, who says the work was inspired by debates around the recent Occupy movement.

"The Occupy movement, no matter how disorganized they may appear to be, suggests that what may be lacking is the theory, knowledge and skills necessary to sustain active engagement against societal pressures that encourage passive acceptance," says Mills, who hopes to draw on the success of social movements that did work like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), which revolutionized AIDS activism in the 90s.

"This project will explore connections between a liberal education and encouraging activism and social engagement," says Mills.

She notes that taking a multi-disciplinary approach allows for different ways of approaching the issue.

"People from different disciplines tackle problems differently," says Mills. "Ideas can be investigated through poetry, art and dance, and connections can be made in non-linear ways. That's what makes this interdisciplinary model so strong."

While still in the early stages, plans for the project include several public activities and activist events including: exhibitions, video screenings and public-site projects with the U of L Art Gallery; a community activist dance project; a web site and social media postings; high profile speakers; a local speaker's series; and a publication. These public events and projects will address specific social issues, will serve as case studies for the exploring larger concepts, and will ground the theoretical context in actual practice.

"Ultimately, we want this research to contribute to a contemporary definition of liberal education and to better understand what is involved with creating participation and engagement in activist actions in today's society," says Mills.

This story first appeared in the May issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

IRDF - Investigating the effectiveness of social programs

trevor.kenney — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:19:02 +0000

The title of their project might be long, but five ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are hoping their work leads to more concise ways in which disadvantaged groups, in particular women, can benefit from having input into, and influence over, social programs designed to assist them.

The research team, comprised of Dr. Carol Williams and Dr. Glenda Bonifacio of the department of Women and Gender Studies, Dr. Patrick Wilson of the Department of Anthropology, Dr. Bonnie Lee of the Faculty of Health Sciences (addictions counselling) and Linda Many Guns of the department of Native American Studies recently received nearly $100,000 from the U of L Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund (IRDF) to explore a project entitled Creative Appropriations: Identities, Communities, and Development in Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Dr. Carol Williams, left, with Dr. Glenda Bonifacio.

Simply put, the researchers are looking at how their target groups have been constructed by the state, appropriate the policies and programs directed at them by government or social agencies and how their particular cultural and lived experiences challenge these constructions to demonstrate alternative models of civic engagement.

The project, suggests Lee, "may shed light on how government policies and non-government organizations (NGOs) can be better positioned to promote more inclusive and vibrant communities."

"This multi-faceted research project will allow us to better understand the possible implications of state and NGO programs for minority populations, and may help us to question the cultural and ideological impulses driving the design of certain projects," says Williams.

Wilson notes the results may, "allow us to see the ways in which minority women, in this case, navigate sometimes hostile policy environments and therefore our results may allow for better design and planning of those policies and programs themselves. Better yet, it may encourage a shift in the control of a project's design and implementation back to local communities and stakeholders."

The local communities and stakeholders aren't just from one particular group. The researchers will be talking with indigenous women involved in food sovereignty projects in Ecuador, women and women's organizations in First Nations communities in Canada and the United States and racialized immigrant women in Canada.

Very little comparative scholarship on the circumstances of racialized immigrant and indigenous women currently exists.

Through a combination of research methods, they hope to gain a clearer picture of some of the challenges or barriers women face in developing cultural or other programming, how they worked creatively to overcome them and how they engaged in 'creative appropriation' to make projects work better.

"An agency might give a group funds, or design a social program for one specific purpose," says Williams.

The group, in turn, might use the money for that stated purpose, or creatively expand the bounds of the agency's funding or program parameters. Williams says that sometimes those groups who work creatively to help their constituents can find themselves 'de-funded' if they stray too far from the stated plan set out by the group or governing organization overseeing the project.

"We are hoping to collect information which can contribute to a new way of policy-making for organizations that allows for, as we're calling it, the 'creative appropriation' of a program design or funding process to make it their own, and possibly more effective."

This story first appeared in the May issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund

Driving Social Change

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