USask researchers tackle societal issues with $2 million in funding

Nine University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers have been awarded a total of more than $2 million in federal funding to address critical societal issues in fields ranging from history, anthropology and sociology to wildlife, music, and art, with two projects relating to the impacts of COVID-19.

By USASK RESEARCH PROFILE AND IMPACT

Nearly 70 per cent of the total funds committed to the Insight Grants (IG) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council will support research projects with a focus on Indigenous peoples in Canada, Central America and Siberia.

“The success of these outstanding researchers highlights the important contribution our university is making to Canada and the world,” said USask Vice-President Research Baljit Singh. “Their dedication and insights help us better understand our society, and enable us help build stronger communities in the future.”

The grants were announced by Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry in a press conference Tuesday, June 15.

The nine SSHRC Insight Grants include:

• Dr. Geraldine Balzer (PhD)
Associate professor, curriculum studies, College of Education
Amount: $95,000
Project: Considering the Future of International Experiential Education: The Impact of Covid-19 on Reciprocity and relationships
Co-applicant: Dr. Michael O’Sullivan (PhD), Brock University.
Collaborator: Luke Heidebrecht, USask.

• Dr. Douglas Clark (PhD)
Associate professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
Amount: $87,000
Project: Characterizing and Enhancing Wildlife Disease Policy Processes with Specific Application to Pandemic Zoonoses
Collaborators: Dr. Ryan Brook (PhD), Dr. Simon Lambert (PhD), Dr. Emily Jenkins (PhD, DVM), USask; and Dr. Catherine Soos PhD, DVM), Environment and Climate Change Canada.

• Dr. Benjamin Hoy (PhD)
Assistant professor of history, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $213,710
Project: The shadows of sovereignty: extradition and extralegal kidnappings across the Canada-US border
Collaborator: Sarah Rutley, USask assistant librarian.

• Dr. Robert Innes (PhD)
Associate professor of Indigenous Studies, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $97,161
Project: The Iron Alliance and the Starvation Policy in the Cypress Hills

• Dr. Joanne Leow (PhD)
Assistant professor, English, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $239,000
Project: Intertidal Polyphonies
Collaborators: Giuliano Gullotti, independent artist; Dr. jake moore (PhD), USask; Juria Toramae, National University of Singapore; Dr. Cedric Maridet, Hong Kong Baptist University.

• Dr. Veronique Mathieu (D. Mus.)
Associate professor, music, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $50,000
Project: To research and develop a set of twelve violin etudes in collaboration with 12 internationally established composers that will address contemporary techniques used in 20th and 21st-century violin
repertoire.

• Dr. Tatiana Nomokonova (PhD)
Assistant professor of archaeology and anthropology, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $221,393
Project: Stitching Together the Past and Present in Arctic Siberia
Collaborators: Stella Razdymakha, Lubov Vozelova, Natalia Fedorova, Andrei Gusev, and Andrei Plekhanov, Scientific Center of Arctic Studies; Tatiana Koptseva, Shemanovskii Museum.
Co-applicant: Dr. Robert Losey (PhD), University of Alberta

• Dr. Scott Thompson (PhD)
Assistant professor of sociology, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $399,981
Project: Why/How is the Person Suspicious?: Surveillance, Community, Law, Racialization, and the Police Practice of Carding in the Prairie Region
Collaborators: Prof. Sarah Buhler, Dr. Zadia Codabux (PhD), Dr. Julie Kaye (PhD), Prof. Glen Luther, Dr. Kevin Schneider (PhD), USask.

• Dr. James Waldram (PhD)
Professor, Archaeology & Anthropology, College of Arts and Science
Amount: $229,000
Project: Animals, Microbes, and Q’eqchi’ Maya Well-being in Belize

USask also received $399,755 in SSHRC Partnership Development Grants.

• Dr. Jim Clifford (PhD)
Associate Professor, Environmental History, College of Arts and Sciences
Amount: $199,995
Project: Building London with Canadian Resources: An Immersive History for Learning the Limits of the Earth's Carrying Capacity

• Dr. Rachel Loewen Walker (PhD)
Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights, College of Law
Amount: $199,800
Project: The Social Innovation Lab: Cultural, Legal and Political Engagement