Researchers at the U of M have been awarded a collective $955,927 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through Insight Grants.
These grants are designed to provide long-term funding for research projects of two to five years in the social sciences and humanities. Specifically, those that investigate significant issues concerning individuals and societies in areas such as economics, resource management and history.
Mario Pinto, the U of M’s vice-president (research and international), stated to UM Today that “these projects will help understand human thought and behaviour and advance the UM strategic priority for fundamental research underlying all advances of clinical, scientific, economic and societal value.”
“I congratulate these five leading innovators, whose fundamental threads serve as a foundation upon which future inter and multidisciplinary themes can be built,” he added.
Each grant recipient has projects that incorporate wide-ranging spheres of learning, including Indigenous cultural restoration to financial assessments related to climate change. The funding will assist to add to the extensive discourse and innovations in their particular research areas.
Dr. Lara Rosenoff Gauvin
Dr. Rosenoff Gauvin’s and her teams’ research focuses on the return of Indigenous Ancestors back to their descendant communities through rematriation.
Her work is grounded in the ongoing Respectful Rematriation and Repatriation ceremony at the U of M, and addresses the harm and violence caused by the removal of Indigenous Ancestors from their original resting places to various Canadian institutions. She feels that this is important to respectfully return Indigenous Ancestors back to their original Nations in a manner tailored to each community through their own cultural laws, traditions and sovereignty.
In an interview with the Manitoban, Gauvin said, “I was hired at the university in 2019. And when I came here, the department had just learned that there were Indigenous Ancestors in the labs, in the anthropology, the archaeology labs.” She added, “I’m also the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. And so, I grew up with my grandmother, who survived, and her sister, talking about that they didn’t know where the bones of their Ancestors were, the rest of my family who had been killed. She noted how it feels to be involved in such a project as her family also faced similar extreme violence in the past.
Gauvin added that her team works closely with the Council of Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Grandfathers and Grandmothers on campus to seek the necessary guidance for carrying out the work ethically and respectfully.
In addition to the ongoing process, the U of M formally apologized to First Nations, Inuit and Métis people on June 3 for the wrongful acquisition of their Ancestors and belongings without consent.
The $375,000 grant, spanning five years, will support student involvement, training, Indigenous artists and will cover project expenses such as reburial costs. “We have one student who has been working with us since they were in their undergrad and now they’re just completing their master’s, an Indigenous student who is interested and has been a part of the work, and she will continue with her PhD next year,” she said. She added that there is room for more interested in this important work.
Gauvin also acknowledged the importance of this project on her life. “I think it’s the most important thing I’ve ever been a part of. And like I said, it’s difficult work,” she said. She continued by adding that, “I think I was brought to the university also to do this work somehow, […] you know, 20 years ago, I wasn’t an academic at all, I worked in the film industry in Montreal.”
She expressed appreciation to the Elders, Grandmothers, Grandfathers and Knowledge Keepers who have led the work and assisted the department to come this far.
Dr. Changqiu Yu
Dr. Changqiu Yu, assistant professor and CPA research fellow, is leading a project focused on the financial risks of climate change. As the world transitions to a low-carbon economy, companies with high carbon emissions face significant transition risks. She aims to analyze how financial analysts assess the environmental transition risks of these firms and incorporate them into their valuations.
Yu’s project will examine how a firm’s carbon emissions and the transition to greener operations affect its financial standing and analyst valuations, potentially uncovering new insights into how environmental concerns shape financial decisions.
In an interview with the Manitoban, she stated that more countries and firms are actively working to reduce carbon emissions to meet netzero commitments, which typically impact the cash flow of these firms. She added that high pollution firms are likely to be valued less due to their high emission as compared to low pollution firms.
Yu’s project will also help provide a clear insight for companies to have a clear understanding for valuation in relation to environmental information. She said, “if companies know that investors are actually looking at the information, the emission they are emitting, it can give them a clear motivation that they should cut off the emission.”
Speaking on how the financial market value is going to evolve as more attention is given to carbon emissions in the firm valuation processes Yu shared that, “I think it’s already developing, people are now able to trade carbon credits permits that allow companies or other entities to emit a specific amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.”
As well, Yu is examining climate policies from around 40 countries, along with the firms in these countries, as part of the research since it is an international project.
Dr. Jessica Cameron
Dr. Jessica Cameron, a professor in the department of psychology, looks at the dynamics involved in romantic relationships, particularly those arising out of friendships. This grant is worth around $140,000 and it is for a five-year period.
Cameron said, “our main goal is to understand the friends to lovers pathway, or sometimes we call it friends first initiation, which is this phenomenon where people are platonic friends for on average almost two years before they begin a romantic relationship together.”
Few studies have explored friends first initiation, leaving little information on the topic, which Cameron finds “disappointing.” Nevertheless, she finds this new area of research very exciting, and the SSHRC Insight Grant will be used for the research in this field.
So far, the research has found that less than 20 per cent of platonic friends will consider any kind of sexual relationships, which is relatively low, said Cameron.
Cameron was of the view that through friendships, people will be able to discover whether they are compatible for romance or not. She continued by saying, “the friendship allows people to make these bonds, to test out trust, to really get to know each other. To not only decide whether they make good friends, but if they were open to a romantic relationship and were looking for a romantic relationship, they can also figure out whether this is somebody that they would want to have that kind of relationship with.”
She concluded by saying that people should prioritize making friends. “I think my main advice is make friends. The worst thing that can happen is you can end up with more friends. Friendship, regardless of whether you have a romantic relationship or not, that is a good thing for human beings. We want to feel connected.”
Dr. Fenton Litwiller
Dr. Fenton Litwiller is an associate professor in the faculty of kinesiology and recreation management focusing on the experiences of queer youth in central Canada. Litwiller’s research investigates how queer youth navigate the concept of gender identity within a culture that often communicates their experiences through a negative or traumatic lens.
In relation to their project, Litwiller has been collaborating with and conducting workshops in not-so-represented areas of Manitoba. This includes collaborating with organizations catering to queer populations, so as to introduce joyful and pioneering experiences into the lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ youth to understand their experiences.
Dr. Jieying Chen
Dr. Jieying Chen, an associate professor in the business administration department, focuses on immigrants in the workplace who have been facing significant challenges from their arrival to Canada. The research aims to identify key psychological and behavioral strategies that ultimately enable immigrants to fit into new work environments and further advance their careers. Often, finding employment and career growth has been a huge challenge for many immigrants. Therefore, Chen hopes to provide insight on how such challenges could be overcome through socialization tactics.
