UNews - Abdie Kazemipur

U of L humanities researchers secure federal grants

caroline.zentner — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:31:45 +0000

Four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors have been awarded more than $300,000 in research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“This year’s SSHRC results reflect a high standard of excellence amongst our humanists and social scientists, of which we can be rightly proud,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president research. “These researchers’ projects touch on vital aspects of cultural, civil and social life and each of them richly deserves this recognition.”

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, a U of L sociology professor, has been awarded more than $138,000 over four years for a research project called After the Ottawa Attack. Kazemipur will examine the integration of Muslims in Canada in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Canada by Muslim converts. More details about his research project are available on the UNews website.

Dr. Fangfang Li, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge psychology professor, has received a grant worth more than $28,000. She and several fellow researchers at the U of L want to ensure the public has access to correct information about child language learning and are organizing a conference that will bring the various academic disciplines involved in child language acquisition research and the public together. The conference, to be hosted on a rotating basis with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is planned to be an annual event. Check out the UNews website for more information.

Dr. Gloria Tian, an associate professor of finance at the U of L’s Calgary campus, and two fellow finance professors, will use their Insight Grant worth more than $94,000 to examine partnerships between corporations and the non-profit sector. Visit UNews to learn more about Tian’s project.

Dr. Hillary Rodrigues, a professor of Religious Studies, will investigate a growing component of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ group. The Modern Nondual Spirituality movement centres on the attainment of a key psychological realization where all conceptual dualities, especially those that distinguish the individual from the rest of reality, collapse. The movement hasn’t received much attention from religious scholars and Rodrigues plans to use his grant worth more than $43,000 to correct that situation. Further information on his study is outlined on UNews.

These grants will further knowledge in key areas of research that are of interest not only to ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, but also to professionals and the public.

U of L sociologist Kazemipur wins prestigious book award

caroline.zentner — Wed, 06 May 2015 20:49:14 +0000

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professor of sociology and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar research chair in social sciences, has been named by the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) as this year’s recipient of The John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award for his recent book The Muslim Question in Canada: A Story of Segmented Integration (2014, UBC Press).

“I am deeply honoured to be receiving this award,” says Kazemipur. “It is very encouraging and energizing to see that my modest contribution has been recognized at a national level and I am grateful to the award committee of the CSA for it.”

In his book, Kazemipur addresses the question of how a peaceful and harmonious relationship can be forged between the Muslim minorities and mainstream populations in western liberal democracies. This has been one of the most pressing issues of the past couple of decades and has resulted in a large body of research. The bulk of the existing research, however, has been non-Canadian, non-empirical, and non-sociological; Kazemipur’s book transcends this field of research on all three fronts. First, the book addresses the research question against the backdrop of ‘Canadian exceptionalism’ – the popular belief that the integration of immigrants has been much smoother in Canada than elsewhere. Second, it relies on a vast array of both quantitative and qualitative data including nationwide longitudinal surveys, face-to-face interviews and participant observations. Third, it demonstrates the merits of using a sociological approach to overcome the shortcomings of the existing research, the bulk of which have their disciplinary bases in political philosophy, cultural studies, communication, religious studies, and anthropology.

Each year, the Canadian Sociological Association gives the award to a work that makes a distinguished contribution to the understanding of Canadian society. The work must be relevant to an issue Canadian society is facing and include solid theory, meticulous research, and clear language. The award, named after prominent Canadian sociologist John Porter, was created in 1980 to recognize outstanding published scholarly contributions to the advancement of sociological knowledge in Canada.

“The award is the top award in Canada for a sociologist; it is the crème de la crème,” says Dr. Susan McDaniel, director of the Prentice Institute and Canada Research Chair in Global Population and Life Course. “We at the Prentice Institute and in the Sociology department at the U of L are justly proud to have a scholar of Dr. Kazemipur's stature among us.”

He will receive the honour during the award ceremony of the annual meeting of the CSA at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2015 in Ottawa May 30 to June 5. He has also been invited to deliver a keynote speech at the 2016 (CSA) conference to be held in Calgary.

Kazemipur will also be the featured speaker at Thursday’s (May 7) Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs at noon at Country Kitchen Catering, located on the lower level of The Keg restaurant.

Faculty members named ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:02:19 +0000

Three ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge faculty members, Dr. Abdie Kazemipur (Social Sciences), Dr. Kas Mazurek (Education) and Dr. Josephine Mills (Fine Arts), have been appointed by the U of L’s Board of Directors to three-year terms as ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars – a program that acknowledges exceptional research, scholarship and performance.

“The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar program helps talented faculty members more actively pursue their respective research areas by granting them financial resources as well as time to further explore their interests,” says Associate Vice-President (Research) Lesley Brown. “These three new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars, who are tremendous representatives of the U of L’s world class faculty, will also have increased opportunities to disseminate their work publicly.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars receive a research grant totaling $5,000 over three years, in addition to $1,500 over three years that may be used towards conference travel, conference registration, speaking and/or performance engagement expenses, or other activities used to disseminate their research activity. One course relief in teaching duty will be granted in each year of an appointment.

Each ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar will give a public lecture or performance as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars Series at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge during the three-year term of their designation.

One ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholar in each of Education, Fine Arts and the Social Sciences is appointed in one particular year, and one in each of Health Sciences, the Humanities, the Natural Sciences and Management, the alternate year.

The terms of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars appointments begin July 1, 2014.

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur

Dr. Kazemipur's work is targeted towards developing a better understanding of the role and place of religion in sociopolitical developments that involve Muslim populations. His work will explore the integration of Muslim immigrants in western liberal-democracies, including Canada. As well, Kazemipur will investigate secularization as well as the interplay of Islam and democracy in the Middle-Eastern countries of Iran, Turkey and Egypt. Through this work, Kazemipur hopes to add a Canadian perspective and a Canadian voice to these ongoing debates.

Dr. Josephine Mills

Dr. Mills will work to advance the outcomes of the Complex Social Change research project. Recently funded through the Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund, this project aims to study and enact collaborative strategies to overcome the inertia that discourages action. The project brings together curators, artists, students and scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds with a common interest – a deep commitment to activism, Liberal Education and to exploring the boundaries between the academy and the public realm. As a U of L Scholar, Mills will be curating a related series of exhibitions and public programs related to activism and social engagement.

NOTE: Dr. Mills is not receiving course relief. Rather, a contract staff person will be hired to work with her on gallery projects.

Dr. Kas Mazurek

Dr. Mazurek’s work explores how Alternative Language Programs meet the needs and aspirations of Alberta's culturally and linguistically diverse populations. His research will document perceptions of administrators and teachers regarding the cultural dimensions of their programs to investigate how these extend beyond language instruction and maintenance. The information that is obtained from Mazurek’s work will inform our understanding across numerous domains. These include how the cultural components of a program are defined, how a program and its teachers are part of a cultural and linguistic community, what makes a program unique, the needs of students and parents an Alternative Language Program meets that other public school programs cannot, and teacher competencies that facilitate successful delivery of a culturally-based program.

StatsCan Research Data Centre a valuable resource

trevor.kenney — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:35:32 +0000

It's a tiny, plain research space, with four small workstations and no Internet access. It requires, among other things, an RCMP security clearance to access the information located within it, and has steel reinforcement built into the walls – so forget about cell phone use. Card key access is tightly controlled and someone is on-site to monitor attendance and carefully screen all notes and results that leave.

So, with all this fuss to access, why is Abdie Kazemipur (sociology) so happy? He and other approved researchers now have access to the entire Statistics Canada (StatsCan) database system – a new initiative that will help ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers gain significant ground as they work on projects that require raw data sets normally not available to the general public.

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, (l) and graduate student Martin Russenberger (r) are the people to contact if your research project requires extensive Statistics Canada data.

The U of L recently flipped the 'on' switch to launch a StatsCan Research Data Centre (RDC) Branch, one of just two dozen all-access points in Canada – mostly in larger institutions – for people who are working with data provided by StatsCan for approved projects.

U of L administration (VP-Academic, VP-Administration, and VP-Research) and the dean of Arts and Science supported the $70,000 project. It also received significant input and assistance from the library, campus facilities and IT departments as the space was created.

Kazemipur, the academic director of the U of L Research Data Centre and a sociology researcher who uses StatsCan data in his work on immigration, says the chance to access rich individual and household data in Lethbridge saves both time and money, offering an opportunity to significantly increase research productivity.

"I would previously have to go to Calgary, and spend intense days analyzing the data," he says. "There were many limitations on my time, and on what I was able to do during the time I had."

Kazemipur says the new centre should expand research opportunities for many faculty members in social sciences, health sciences and management who, like him, want to go deeper into their research and beyond the data available for public use.

Local access should also be an enticement to other researchers to come to the U of L to work or conduct research, in particular the 22 research affiliates of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, which is expected to be one of the more frequent users of the facility.

"Researchers in the Prentice Institute – more than 20 faculty, post-docs and students – are delighted to have access to micro-level data in our new Research Data Centre," says
Dr. Susan McDaniel, the institute's director. "Our mission is to examine population change in shifting economic environments. One of the best ways to do this is to follow individuals over time rather than compare different sets of people at two points in time."

McDaniel says that the RDC enables researchers in one of her SSHRC-funded projects to follow Canadians at seven points of time as they move from mid-life into their older years.

"It is really, as famous hockey player Wayne Gretzky was fond of saying, skating to where the puck will be. I am certain that having the RDC here will help us recruit new faculty and junior research chairs to work in the Prentice Institute."

The process to gain access to the data is not as challenging is it might first sound, Kazemipur says. Projects must go through several steps, including an
online application to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which triggers a request to StatsCan for access to the appropriate dataset – and that's where the security checks come in.

Once approved, a researcher gains access to the data centre with a swipe card, and can sign in and out as needed to complete their work.

Anyone wishing to use the centre, or who has a project they feel could benefit from access to the StatsCan data, can contact Kazemipur for more information on the process.

Contact him at 403-329-5132 or e-mail abdie.kazemipur@uleth.ca. Or, you can contact site supervisor Martin Russenberger, a part-time StatsCan employee and current Geography/Economics graduate student at the U of L (rdc@uleth.ca).

This story first appeared in the Legend. To view the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Impact of ORIS seen everywhere

trevor.kenney — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:37:20 +0000

The Office of Research and Innovation Services is active in promoting the interests of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge on a number of fronts. This includes ongoing support for faculty researchers and the establishment of research initiatives and partnerships at local, regional, national and international levels.

In the past year, we have seen a number of examples that highlight the behind-the-scenes work that ORIS does in supporting research interests at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and beyond.

Pictured (L to R), the U of L's Dr. Dan Weeks, Shaun Wedick (Consul of Canada, Chennai), Dr. Karl Staenz, Deep Mazumdar, Prashant Shulkle (Director General, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada).

The office was instrumental in establishing a branch Research Data Centre (RDC) through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. The RDC is a university-based laboratory that offers researchers secure access to confidential micro-data from a constantly growing number of datasets, primarily from Statistics Canada. Researchers also have access to fully equipped workstations, standard and highly specialized statistical analysis packages and technical support through this agreement, all provided free of charge.

ORS supported Dr. Abdie Kazemipur (sociology) during the process, as he was instrumental in this application, giving our researchers a secure level of access to vital data that they have never previously enjoyed.

The establishment of new initiatives also included support for the first inter-disciplinary conference on childhood in Canadian history, The Childhoods Conference: Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood. ORS worked with Dr. Jan Newberry, among others, to obtain funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research to present the May 5-7 event, one that has the potential to spin-off into a childhood studies institute.

"Most folks from the U of L community will associate ORIS with providing researchers the expert support necessary for developing winning proposals for research grant competitions," says Vice-President (Research) Dr. Daniel Weeks. "However, it is equally important that we provide ongoing assistance to facilitate productive partnerships that allow our researchers to advance research and/or knowledge mobilization."

The ORIS also works to create partnerships beyond the walls of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ as it looks to push research interests in local and regional quarters. Recently, the U of L signed a memorandum of understanding with Lethbridge College, Lethbridge Economic Development and SouthGrow Regional Initiative and Community Futures, Lethbridge Region.

The memorandum formalizes a partnership that intends to push innovation and commercialization activities throughout the southern Alberta region, supporting business and industry by facilitating the flow of knowledge, stimulating the transfer of innovative ideas, advancing areas of mutual interest and providing greater access to business for our students as they look to gain practical experience through applied research projects.

"The increasing pressure to commercialize and innovate research outcomes is a challenge for universities," says Weeks. "Indeed, commercialization is not a primary function of a university. We have taken the position that creating stronger alliances between community organizations and other post secondary institutions can be enormously effective and yield important benefits for everyone."

The ORIS then works to take the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ message to the national and international level, facilitating partnerships that create the framework for global research projects. In January, Weeks was accompanied by Dr. Karl Staenz (geography) and Deep Mazumdar (PhD candidate, geography) as they participated in the Canadian Geomatics Science and Technology Partnering Mission in India. The mission sought to showcase how Canada's expertise and technology could assist India as it addresses its need for leading-edge geospatial solutions.

The scope of benefits gained by the U of L as it enhanced its presence in the Indian market and built essential business relationships cannot yet begin to be realized.

It is the amalgamation of this activity that makes up the breadth of the ORIS mandate and assists in growing the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's reputation as a comprehensive research institution both locally and beyond.

For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - Abdie Kazemipur

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