New federal funding is accelerating diverse research projects ranging from social enterprise in rural Newfoundland and Labrador to research focused on women, feminism and philosophy.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced a total of $2,273,242 on July 17 for 40 Memorial-led projects.

“This latest investment will propel critical studies in a variety of disciplines and strengthen Memorial’s reputation for innovative research.” — Dr. Neil Bose

Researchers and graduate students in faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences; Business Administration; Science; and Education; and the schools of Music; Science and Environment; and Fine Arts have secured the new funding.

The funding is awarded through SSHRC’s Partnership Development Grants; Insight Grants; Insight Development Grants; SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships; and the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships—Doctoral and Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships—Master’s competitions.

“This latest investment by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada will propel critical studies in a variety of disciplines and strengthen Memorial’s reputation for innovative research,” said Dr. Neil Bose, vice-president (research).

“I congratulate each of our faculty members and graduate students who have successfully secured investments through increasingly competitive processes. Their work will lead to new insights and improve the lives of people here at home and across the globe.”

‘Solve the big problems’

Among the funding announced is support for more than 25 graduate student research projects.

“The support provided by SSHRC will fuel diverse and important student-led projects in a variety of areas important to solve the big problems facing society,” said Dr. Aimée Surprenant, associate vice-president (Academic) and dean of Graduate Studies.

“SSHRC has been, and continues to be, an important partner in innovative research and scholarship at Memorial. We are proud of our students for winning these prestigious awards in recognition of their significant accomplishments and outstanding promise.”

Agricultural research

Dr. Roza Tchoukaleyska, assistant professor, Environment and Sustainability, Grenfell Campus, is receiving $96,425 in SSHRC funding for a project entitled Reshaping the city through agrarian protest: public space, rural actors, and the cultural implications of international trade agreements.

“The SSHRC funding will provide support for this new project that looks at agricultural production in Canada and in France, and the impact of international trade agreements,” she told the Gazette.

“I am particularly interested in how trade agreements like NAFTA and the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement will impact the dairy industry and how farmers and rural communities can ensure that their voices are heard in negotiations, including through protest.”

Dr. Tchoukaleyska says her new funding will also allow her to hire two new Master of Arts positions at the Environmental Policy Institute at Grenfell Campus.

Social enterprise success

Dr. John Schouten, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Social Enterprise, in the Faculty of Business Administration is receiving $124,239 for a project entitled Cultural renewal in Newfoundland and Labrador: Lessons from Fishing for Success, a social enterprise in Petty Harbour, N.L.

Fishing for Success is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to living, sharing and celebrating the traditional fishing knowledge and culture that sustained generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.

Dr. Schouten says the SSHRC funding is allowing him, and collaborators from around the world, to learn about the group’s best practices.

“We just did a workshop on social enterprise and marketing that involved a dozen scholars from as far away as Brazil, France and the UK, as well as Canada and the United States,” he told the Gazette.

Fishing for Success hosted the group for a full day of “learning immersion,” showcasing its commercial and social missions, and demonstrating how the social enterprise ecosystem is working in Petty Harbour.

“Part of what we are doing is figuring out ways to actually measure and document the impact of the social mission of Fishing for Success and communicate that impact to policy makers,” he added.

In total, Kirsty Duncan, minister of Science and Sport, announced more than $285 million for over 6,900 researchers and graduate students across Canada.

Below is a listing of Memorial applicants who are receiving funding. Various other projects that have received SSHRC funding also include Memorial researchers as co-applicants and/or collaborators.

Partnership Development Grants

• John Schouten, Faculty of Business Administration, Cultural renewal in Newfoundland and Labrador: Lessons from Fishing for Success, a social enterprise in Petty Harbour, N.L., $124,239.

TOTAL: $124,239.

Insight Development Grants

• Matthew Milner, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanohistory—an experimental digital history methodology, $71,193.
• Madeleine Mant, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Behind bars: historical stigma and sickness in the imprisoned, $34,444.
• Erin Oldford, Faculty of Business Administration, A false signal or a way forward: The effect of CEO vision content and communication on firm performance, $43,698.
• Cameron Forbes, School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus, Active site: Interventions and adaptations in Western Newfoundland’s built environment, $49,325.

TOTAL: $198,660

Insight Grants

• Shannon Hoff, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Being gendered: On women, feminism, and philosophy, $124,664.
• Sara Mackenzie, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Contrast and word formation in phonological patterning, $29,164.
• Kara Arnold, Faculty of Business Administration, Stress and destructive leadership: Causes, conditions, and the mitigating role of mindfulness, $184,657.
• Jianyun Tang, Faculty of Business Administration, Toward a realistic theory of leader effectiveness, $94,760.
• Alyson Byrne, Faculty of Business Administration, Understanding the experience and widespread consequences of job-status leakage in traditional and non-traditional families, $143,857.
• Roza Tchoukaleyska, School of Science and Environment, Grenfell Campus, Reshaping the city through agrarian protest: public space, rural actors, and the cultural implications of international trade agreements, $96,425.
• Rebecca Franklin, Faculty of Business Administration, Facilitating higher levels of professional success and personal well-being: Why differentiation of self is crucial for entrepreneurs, $96,816.

TOTAL: $770,343

SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships

• Caitlynn Beckett, Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mine remediation in Northern Canada: Confronting and caring for the environmental legacies of extractive industries, $80,000.
• Abigail Franco Vazquez, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Identifying and evaluating the role of ethical capital in the performance of social enterprises, $60,000.
• Amanda J. Hancock, Faculty of Business Administration, Employee attitudes and outcomes after a leader discloses a stigmatized identity, $40,000.
• Bryan W. Heystee, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The impact of technology on contemporary society in the thought of George Grant, $80,000.
• Emma B. Lewis-Sing, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Plastic landscapes: An archaeological and heritage approach to places of ecological shame, $80,000.

TOTAL: $340,000

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships—Doctoral

• Andreae Callanan, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Many solitudes: Form, idiom, and identity in poetry by Canadian women, $105,000.
• Laura R. Fallon, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Witness interrogation: The effect of the use of threats by police interviewers on witnesses, $105,000.
• Sarah K. Hannon, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Emancipation and the aftermath of slavery in Bermuda: Opening the archive, $105,000.
• Ryan J. Murphy, Faculty of Business Administration, Enabling crowd-based problem solving, $105,000.
• Haley R. M. Toll, Faculty of Education, Creative community connections: Art therapy supporting newcomer refugee women to Newfoundland and Labrador, $105,000.

TOTAL: $525,000

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships—Master’s

• Lindsay Bellows, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Relational aggression, self-compassion, and body shame in adolescence, $17,500.
• Eileen Bethune, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cobbling together the past: Investigations into Ferryland’s Prettie Streete, $17,500.
• Katie Butt, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Adolescent sexual repression and miseducation in Sheik and Sater’s Spring Awakening, $17,500.
• Ashley Cameron, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Analysis of stone tools from archaeological site FjCa-51, Area 9 and Area 11, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, $17,500.
• Mallory Champagne, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, French trade in the North Atlantic 1763-1815: a view from Saint-Pierre, $17,500.
• Benjamin Dugdale, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Summerfall: Revitalizing rural queer experiences in short fiction, $17,500.
• Karissa Dunphy, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tolkien’s forests and humanity’s return to nature, $17,500.
• Chantal Ferreira-Pennell, School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus, All my relations: Beauty in an urban wasteland, $17,500.
• Kayla Hollett, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Examining the social stigma of binge eating disorder, $17,500.
• Christopher Hutchinson, School of Music, The Alexander Technique and the role of somatic pedagogies in musical performance training, $17,500.
• Maria Learning, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, An evaluation of the effect of output interference on memory recall in police interviews, $17,500.
• Kaitlyn Little, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pacific intersections: Indigenous Hawaiians, British colonial enterprise, and the displacement of Indigenous North Americans, $17,500.
• Clarissa Noxon, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The radical right: Both winners and Losers in Europe, $17,500.
• Jazpyn Osmond, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, When you can’t unearth the covered up: Archaeology and the memorialization of Mount Cashel Orphanage, $17,500.
• Rebecca Roberts, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Movement and artistic production in modernist urban landscapes, $17,500.
• Jeffrey Speller, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, L’Anse aux Meadows: An integrated geoarchaeological investigation, $17,500.
• Brooke Steinhauer, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Messing with the gender binary: Understanding perceptions of gender diverse candidates in contemporary elections, $17,500.
• Chris Stevens, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The caribou and the iron horse: The Newfoundland Railway and its impact on Indigenous Communities, $17,500.

TOTAL: $315,000