Social entrepreneurship, child psychology and politics in the era of globalized finance are among 22 new research projects receiving more than $2.1 million in federal funding.
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced the investment on Sept. 9, awarded through its Partnership Development Grants, Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants. A combined total of $2,106,183 for was announced to Memorial.
Empowering researchers
The funding supports research led by the Schools of Music and Social Work; Faculties of Science, Business Administration and Humanities and Social Sciences; and Grenfell Campus.
“Memorial is fortunate to be home to such talented critical thinkers.”
“This new investment will empower some of Memorial’s established and emerging scholars, while helping train a new generation of researchers,” said Dr. Richard Marceau, vice-president (research). “Memorial is fortunate to be home to such talented critical thinkers. Through the ongoing support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Memorial is able to advance important cultural, societal and economic-relevant studies in Canada and abroad.”
‘Crucial’ funding
Dr. Carole Peterson, University Research Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has received $303,804 to lead a five-year study titled Assessing Interviews and Recall in Children. Her research team includes graduate and undergraduate students.
Dr. Peterson says the SSHRC funding is “crucial” to her research.
“Young children have now become important participants in the legal system and yet there is a lot more that we need to know about how best to interview them and how to assess their reports in terms of credibility,” she said in an interview with the Gazette.
“I, and my research associates, will be conducting studies that helps us understand children as witnesses, both in terms of optimal interviewing procedures and understanding how judges, juries, police, lawyers, social workers and others can best assess child credibility.”
Student training
On the province’s West Coast, Dr. Paul Foley, assistant professor in the School of Science and Environment, Grenfell Campus, has received $48,574 for a two-year project titled Navigating the Foggy Seas of Sustainability Certification: Are There Benefits for Fish Harvesters?
He says the funding will allow his team to train students to conduct an extensive review of various programs in fisheries worldwide as well as fieldwork focused on the effects of market mechanisms of governance in Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries.
“While consumer-oriented eco-labeling and certification programs are widely heralded as ‘win-win’ approaches to governance for the environment and for industry across a range of sectors in a context of globalization, we know little about the actual effects of alternative options for small-scale producers,” Dr. Foley said.
“The funding will also enable our team to build on the research to develop an application for a larger interdisciplinary and collaborative SSHRC grant application.”
Emerging technologies
Dr. Rebecca Franklin, assistant professor, Faculty of Business Administration, focuses her research on entrepreneurship. She has received $44,566 for a project titled Entrepreneurship in the Arts: Fostering Entrepreneurial Behaviours That Lead to Positive Outcomes.
Dr. Franklin says the project will examine ways in which entrepreneurs utilize and leverage new and emerging technologies to bolster entrepreneurial success.
“The arts influence economic development by generating jobs, increasing tax revenue, attracting businesses and visitors and enhancing the overall market appeal of an area,” she explained. “Thus, economic development efforts must address the need for a thriving arts and entertainment industry.
“This study will help identify individual and behavioural factors that facilitate engagement in the types of activities that lead to successful entrepreneurial outcomes in the context of the entertainment/music industry — factors that also contribute to the type of thriving entertainment industry that can have a positive impact on the economic development of the region.”
SSHRC
SSHRC is the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary based research and training in the humanities and social sciences. It supports about 8,300 research projects annually.
The full list of Memorial researchers receiving SSHRC support is below.
Insight Grants: October 2015 Competition Awards
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Dr. Mario Blaser, Archaeology, Life projects under the shadow of the (good) Anthropocene, $188,101.
- Dr. Dominique Bregent-Heald, History, Northern getaway: the tourism film and selling Canada, $66,269.
- Dr. Robert K. Ormsby, English, Global Shakespeare, intercultural performance and festival tourism, $105,128.
- Dr. Liam Swiss, Sociology, Developing conformity: foreign aid and the diffusion of global norms, $178,080.
- Dr. Eric Y. Tenkorang, Sociology, Examining the help-seeking behaviors of female victims of intimate partner violence in Ghana, $203,378.
- Dr. Gerard Van Herk, Linguistics, Sisters under the skin: input, maintenance and post-insularity in Atlantic English-based varieties, $98,599.
- Dr. Russell Williams, Political Science, Politics in the era of globalized finance — reassessing the role of domestic institutions, networks and ideas in financial regulation, $122,616.
Total: $962,171
Faculty of Science
- Dr. Carole Peterson, Psychology, Assessing interviews and recall in children, $303,804.
Total: $303,804
Partnership Development Grants: November 2015 Competition Awards
- Dr. Natalie Slawinski, Faculty of Business Administration, Building resilient rural communities through social entrepreneurship: lessons from the Shorefast foundation on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, $169,409.
Total: $169,409
Insight Development Grants — Spring 2016 Competition Results
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Dr. Lincoln Addison, Anthropology, The Gendered and Economic Consequences of Land Reform in Sovelele, Zimbabwe, $74,739.
- Dr. Karlo Basta, Political Science, Redrawing Internal Borders in Multinational States: The Political Feasibility of Institutional Change, $49,690.
- Dr. Anne Graham, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, A Translation into Modern English and Critical Edition of Théodore de Bèze’s 1550 Play: Abraham sacrifiant, $24,892.
- Dr. Maria Mayr, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Transnational European Memory in German-language Literature from Eastern Europe: Yugoslavia and Beyond, $28,900.
- Dr. Adrienne Peters, Sociology, A Longitudinal Study of the Reoffending Outcomes of Serious-Violent, Gang-Involved, Mentally Disordered, and Sexual Offenders Supervised on Specialized Youth Probation, $63,081.
- Dr. Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Geography, Immigration, urban change, and the contemporary Rust Belt: The impact of recent immigration-focused urban growth coalitions in Cleveland, Ohio and Hamilton, Ontario, $50,169.
- Dr. Maureen Scheidnes, Linguistics, Language Experience and Linguistic Complexity in Child Bilingual Development: A Cross-learner Comparison, $37,550.
Total: $329,021
Faculty of Business Administration
- Dr. Kara Arnold, Sexual orientation and gender-typed work: An integration of role congruity and implicit inversion theories, $47,129.
- Dr. Rebecca Franklin, Entrepreneurship in the Arts: Fostering entrepreneurial behaviors that lead to positive outcomes, $44,566.
- Dr. Chansoo Park, The impact of differences in organizational culture on the transfer of knowledge in Canadian and American MNEs: The role of relational capital and longevity, $54,958.
Total: $146,653
Grenfell Campus
- Dr. Paul Foley, Environmental Policy, Navigating the foggy seas of sustainability certification: Are there benefits for fish harvesters?, $48,574.
Total: $48,574
School of Music
- Dr. Christine Carter, Music, Optimizing Music Learning: The Effects of Contextual Interference, $74,926.
Total: $74,926
School of Social Work
- Dr. Kathleen Sitter, Using Participant-Generated Photography and Social Media to Explore the Social Location of Sex Workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, $71,625.
Total: $71,625
