Seventeen U of M projects have received over $2.5 million in funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The funding was announced July 17 in Fredricton, N.B., by Kirsty Duncan, minister of science and sport. Over $1 million for U of M graduate student scholarships was also announced.
Réal Carrière, an assistant professor in the faculty of political studies, received over $70,000 in funding over two years through the SSHRC Insight Development grant for his project “Nistotumowin Nehinuwak Okimahin: Developing a Deeper Understanding of Swampy Cree Political Theories and Practices.”
The funding he received will allow Carrière to expand on the work he started in his doctoral research into Swampy Cree political theory.
“I’m going to be able to continue that work to go into several more communities outside of my home territory and to other Swampy Cree communities,” he said.
Carrière described the grant — and other similar awards — as being key for new academics in determining the path of their career.
“Grants of this size allow you to pursue your research agenda and the goals of what you want to do with your career,” he said.
Carrière also spoke about what research grants of this sort can mean for students by creating opportunities for gaining research experience.
“The way I designed the grant, and most grants are, is to get students, grad students or undergraduate students, to do research and [gain] career experience.”
“You’re probably not going to be successful if you’re not hiring any students, that’s kind of what they want to see, the Social Sciences [and Humanities] Research Council, they want to see that you’re supporting students and that you’re contributing to, they call it ‘knowledge production,’ that’s the official language that they use, and part of knowledge production is mentorship of new students,” he said.
“As a faculty, the grants themselves, recipients are successful for a lot of different factors, and one of the main factors too is, how are you going to support development of students.”
