Fall Newsletter 2024

Welcome, we’re thrilled to have you here. At the CCRLA hub, research, learning, exploration, and growth are at the heart of everything we do. As curious researchers we’re committed to supporting your academic aims and development. Let’s learn, collaborate, and thrive together!

 

CCRLA would like to take this opportunity to welcome new faculty members who have joined the CCRLA community. 

Hillary Pimlott
Coordinator, Women and Gender Studies Program, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, and MA in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory.

Shaunasea Brown
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies. Co-founder of Black Researchers of Southwestern Ontario (BRSO).

Vanessa Oliver
Associate Professor, Youth and Children’s Studies; Graduate Faculty, Social Justice and Community Engagement.

What We've All Been Up To In The World

(in no particular order)

 

Ciann Wilson

Access and Equity (A&E) Research Interest Group (A&E  RIG)

It has been an exciting year of research activity in our RIG. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Beals set out on another phase of story gathering for the SSHRC and CIHR-Funded Proclaiming Our Roots Project this spring/summer. The stories created by Afro-Indigenous community members across Canada were both inspiring, brilliant, and heartbreaking. We are looking forward to continuing to share the outputs of this work and labour of love through some innovative modalities. Dr. Wilson recently secured Tri-Agency funding to continue and expand some integral work around transforming institutional ethical review processes for research engaging Indigenous and Black communities within Canada, and around the world.

Publications

1. N. Darko,* C. L. Wilson, V. Oliver. (2024). We are Mothers, Sisters, and Lovers Too’: Examining Young Black Women’s Experiences Navigating Sex and Sexual Health. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12753
2. C. Hastings, M. French, A. McClelland, E. Mykhalovskiy,. …C. Wilson. (2023). Criminal Code reform of HIV non‑disclosure is urgently needed: Social science perspectives on the harms of HIV criminalization in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-023-00843-9
3. M. Khan and C. L. Wilson. (2023). We Have Some Reconciliatory Work to Do: Kitchen Table Conversations Between Black and Brown Scholars in Canadian Academe. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping Journal,29(2), 84-97.
4. D. Burchell,* T. Coleman, R. Travers, I. Aversa,* E. Schmid,* S. Coulombe, C. Wilson, M. Woodford, and C. Davis. (2023). I don’t want to have to teach every medical provider: barriers to care among non-binary people in the Canadian healthcare system. Culture, Health, and Sexuality. 26(1), 61–76.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2023.2185685

Invited Talks and Presentations

1. C. L. Wilson, R. Jackson, and F. Ibanez-Carrasco. April 28th, 2024. (Panelist). Promoting comprehensive sexual health and wellbeing across the life course. Canadian Association for HIV/AIDS Research Annual Conference, 2024. London, ON.
2. C. L. Wilson, N. Lachowsky, R. Souleymanov. April 4th, 2024. (Panelist). How to involve people with lived experience (patients, communities) in your research. CIHR - III New Investigator Forum. King City, ON.
3. C.L. Wilson. June 24th, 2023. (Keynote). Black and Alternative Psychologies: Unpacking racism and colonialism in science. Canadian Psychological Association Conference, 2023. Toronto, ON.
4. C. L. Wilson, and I. Abdillahi. Black Health. Sepsis Canada. Toronto, ON.

 

Ketan Shankardass

The Centre for Urban Health Solutions (C-UHS)

It's been a busy year...New Grant - New Frontiers in Research Fund, I’m leading an international and interdisciplinary research team to develop methods and tools for community-engaged neighbourhood resilience planning through the Smart Citizens Enabling Resilient Neighbourhoods (SCERN) for Equitable and Inclusive Post-pandemic Futures project.

Publications

1. George JO, Elayan S, Sykora M, Solter M, Feick R, Hewitt C, Liu Y, Shankardass K. The Role of Social Media in Building Pandemic Resilience in an Urban Community: A Qualitative Case Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023;20(17):6707
2. Balakrishnan S, Elayan S, Sykora M, Solter M, Feick R, Hewitt C, Liu YQ, Shankardass K. Sustainable Smart Cities—Social Media Platforms and Their Role in Community Neighborhood Resilience—A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023;20(18):6720.

Conferences

1. Sheppard H, Shankardass K. A Community Psychology Approach for Participatory Mapping to Strengthen Community Resilience in Urban Settings. June 22, 2023, 19th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
2. Shankardass K, Shaughnessy K, Sykora M, Elayan S, Gruebner O, Feick R. Using Geo-Social Media to Identify Urban Communities in Need: Ethical Questions for a Community Psychology Approach. June 22, 2023, 19th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

 

Maritt Kirst

Co-Director of CCRLA and Director of the Community Mental Health Research Interest Group

Dr. Kirst's research program on solutions to homelessness has made some important advances. An article was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health on Dr. Kirst and colleagues’ evaluation of the delivery of a Housing First (HF) program in Waterloo Region, Canada. The evaluation explored how well the HF program was being delivered in accordance with the guiding principles of HF programming, and makes an important contribution to knowledge of key facilitators and challenges in delivering these kinds of homelessness services in Canada. The evaluation found that the HF program had high adherence to HF principles which positions it well for achieving successful outcomes for program participants.

Dr. Kirst was also recently awarded an internal grant to explore the experiences of youth as they transition out of youth homelessness and mental health services at the age of 25 into related adult service systems, and how this transition affects their housing, mental health and wellness outcomes in the Canadian context.

Publications

1. Kirst, M., Bigioni, S., Douglin, M., Rozycki, V., Toope, E., Gill, L., Nelson, G. (2024). Results of a process evaluation of the Paths2Home program, a Housing First program in Waterloo, Canada. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health.
2. Dr. Kirst, Dr. Wilson and colleagues have completed a report on a SSHRC-funded workshop series on Equity Focused Evaluation practices. The workshops focused on unpacking equity-focused evaluation approaches and concepts and learning about examples that being an equity focus to the process of program evaluation. Read report.

 

Melody Morton Ninomiya

Interdisciplinary and Indigenous Pathways to Wellness (IIPW) Research Group.

Grants

1. Health Systems Integration Fund (HSIF), Indigenous Services Canada, Project Title: Developing an Innu Health Data Governance Plan. Co-Investigator with Innu Round Table Secretariat (2024-2026)
2. Ontario Association of Young Parent Agencies and Mitacs, Project Title: Examination of Ontario-based pregnant and parenting transitional aged youth in live-in and intensive day treatment programs. Principal Investigator (2023-2024)
3. SSHRC Canada Research Chair Program. Principal Investigator as Tier II Canada Research Chair of Community-Driven Knowledge Mobilization and Pathways to Wellness (2022-2027)
   o   Project 1: Bibliometric analysis of knowledge mobilization terms, disciplines, geographies, and authors for community-partnered research.
   o   Project 2: Scoping review of knowledge mobilization that supports wellness for equity deserving populations in community-partnered research.
   o   Project 3: Transitions to adulthood for people with FASD research (research compensation). 
   o   Project 4: FASD Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Across Multiple Sectors in New Brunswick.
   o   Project 5: Evaluation of Waterloo Region pilot peer support group for and by youth with FASD.

Publications

1. Kennedy, M., Morton Ninomiya, M.E., Morton Ninomiya, M.*, Brascoupé, S., Smylie, J., Calma, T., Mohamed, J., Stewart, P., Maddox, R. (2024). Knowledge translation in Indigenous health research: Voices from the field. Medical Journal of Australia. DOI: 10.5694/mja2.52357
2. Gault, S.*, Gnat, L.*, Fletcher, P., Kirst, M., Macdonald, R. & Morton Ninomiya, M.E. (2024). Current and ideal living arrangements and supports for Canadian adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Part I: Perspectives from adults with FASD. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. DOI: 10.1111/acer.15336
3. Gault, S.*, Gnat, L.*, Fletcher, P., Kirst, M., Macdonald, R., O’Neill, L.* & Morton Ninomiya, M.E. (2024). Current and ideal living arrangements and supports for Canadian adults with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Part II: Perspectives from caregivers. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. DOI: 10.1111/acer.15337

*Students

 

Hillary Pimlott

Coordinator Women & Gender Studies, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, and MA Cultural Analysis and Social Theory

Hillary gave an online talk on “Understanding Anti-Trans Rhetoric” to draw greater attention to understanding some of the ways in which anti-trans discourses are introduced and circulated on campus. (March 8 2024)

And also gave the second annual Trans Day of Visibility Talk on March 27th  2024 on “Political Pawns or Canaries in a Coal Mine? How Anti-Trans Activism Weaponises Ignorance and Undermines Democracy” (March 27 2024)

Hillary delegated to the Waterloo Region District School Board on the issue of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ activists drawing upon misleading and disinformation on trans kids and gender affirming care. (May 13 2024)

 

Shaunasea Brown

Assistant Professor, Communication Studies (Laurier)

Shaunasea is a co-founder of the Black Researchers Network of Southwestern Ontario (BRSO). This newly established platform and resource consists of Black faculty, staff and students located at the following seven institutions: Brock University, Laurier University, McMaster University, The University of Guelph, The University of Waterloo, Western University, and Windsor University. They’re ecstatic to be in partnership with CCRLA for our official launch and planning our inaugural conference later this year.

Shaunasea is currently working on several exciting projects. Firstly, they are preparing a book proposal to transform their dissertation into a book manuscript. They have already met with Siobhan McMenemy, an editor at WLU Press, who has shown interest in the project. This work takes an arts-based approach to explore how second-generation Black Caribbean Canadian women artists make Canada their home. The Press is particularly interested in this partnership due to their innovative methods of incorporating sound into texts and offering creative possibilities for digital formats.

Organizing this book manuscript also opens up opportunities to publish content that may not be included in the book in other peer-reviewed journals, such as Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies or the Journal of Canadian Studies.

Additionally, Shaunasea will continue to collect data, including oral histories and newspaper archives, for their second book project, “Toward Something Else*: Haunting Sounds of Black Life in the African Diaspora”. This project engages with oral histories, archives, and grassroots organizing to demonstrate how Black music something else* for understandings of Black being in the Americas.

Publications

1. Brown, S., Mendez, M. & Stephens, J. (Under Review/Forthcoming 2024). The Big Kids Book Club. In J. Prioletta, L. Herriot & A. Davies (Eds.), Gender, Sexuality, and the Importance of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the Early Years. Canadian Scholars/Women’s Press. Forthcoming.

Conferences

1. Brown, S. and D. Ebanks Schlums. “Art Talks: Sandra Brewster and Black Women’s Place-making in Canada.” 14th Annual Conference for The Association for the study of Arts of the Present 2023. UW Seattle.
2. “On Be(long)ing: Second-Generation Black Caribbean Canadian Women Artists Creating a Different Kind of ‘Canadianness.’” Black Canadian Studies Association at the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Congress 2023.
3. “On Self-Love: Black Caribbean Canadian Queer Representations through the Music and Photography” in the Loving Out Loud and In Quiet: Care, Kinship and Black Life panel at the American Studies Association Conference 2023.

 

Vanessa Oliver

Associate Professor, Youth and Children’s Studies; Graduate Faculty, Social Justice and Community Engagement.

Most recently Vanessa has been working with several SSHRC-funded research teams that are working with both teachers and young people to study the creation, rollout, and delivery of sex education curricula in Ontario.  Working with the SHORE Centre, we are currently focusing on formulating youth-generated recommendations for sexual health education programming that responds to young people’s diverse needs and lived experiences.

Grants

1. SSHRC PEG - Wants and Needs: Engaging Young People in Community Sex Education. 2023-24.
   (Currently in the data collection and analysis phase).

Publications

1. Oliver, V., & Flicker, S. (2023). “Declining Nudes: Canadian teachers’ responses to including sexting in the Sexual Health and Human Development curriculum. Sex Education.

 

 

 

WELLBEING |

HOW DO YOU MEASURE?

How should you measure your days? It's easy to measure your days in dollars earned or tasks completed, but there are other units of measurement to consider:
What would you do today if you wanted to maximize laughter?
What would you do today if you wanted to maximize time outside?
What would you do today if you wanted to maximize peace of mind?
What unit of measurement serves you best right now?

 

 

Wishing you a semester filled with discovery and success!

Warm regards,

CCRLA Team