OCAD U receives more than $300,000 to fund research projects
OCAD University has received more than $300,000 in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to support a diversity of creative research projects over the next two years.
“The incredible range of research topics that this funding supports demonstrates just how multi-dimensional the faculty at OCAD U are and how creative research comes in many forms,” commented Dr. Ashok Mathur, Interim Vice-President, Research and Innovation and Dean of Graduate Studies.
Together these projects will take faculty to communities both local and abroad, including Toronto’s Regent Park, Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, Australia and Brazil to investigate subjects that include artificial intelligence and Indigenous knowledge; digital storytelling by Southeast Asian diasporas; dementia and aging policy production; sustainable frameworks for economic renewal; and the development of methods for sharing knowledge between cultures.
Five of the seven 2021 SSHRC Insight Development Grants submitted by OCAD U faculty in February 2021 received funding.
“This is an unprecedented success rate for OCAD U faculty. Those faculty members who submitted applications had a 71.4 per cent success rate, compared to the overall national success rate of 56.3 per cent in this competition,” noted Director of Research Services, Heather Robson. “Many of the projects are being led by relatively newly appointed faculty, so this is very exciting.”
2021 SSHRC Insight Development Grants
Project Summaries
Achieving Gender Equity in Aging: Co-Designing Gender-Based Analyses Frameworks Through the Case Study of Dementia Policy Development in Canada and Australia
Awarded: $53,873
Principle Investigator:
Dr. Michelle Wyndham-West, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Art and Graduate Program Director of Inclusive Design and Design for Health
Co-applicant:
Dr. Ayumi Goto, Instructor in the Faculty of Art
Dr. Jutta Treviranus, Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre and Professor in the Faculty of Design
The research team will undertake comparative research in two countries that are currently at different, but equally critical, stages of dementia policy development.
They will examine how policymakers that address aging apply the categories of gender, intersectionality, equity and care. The researchers aim to apply their findings to codesigning frameworks that can be used by policymakers in Canada, Australia and globally.
Canada and Australia lend themselves well to this comparison as they have similar histories with respect to the application of Gender-based Analysis in policymaking and the need to address disparities in health policy and practice in relation to Indigenous, Aboriginal, immigrant and refugee populations.
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Creating Collaborations between the Natural Elements and Technology: Miyeu Piishkaymishoohkis / Safe Conduct
Awarded: $61,544
Principal Investigator:
Jason Baerg, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Art
Co-Applicant:
Howard Munroe, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Design
Collaborator:
Susan Blight, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Delaney Chair of Indigenous Visual Culture
Through this research, scholars who are part of the digital creative Indigenous community will produce and publicly present two incremental artworks that experiment with artificial intelligence and reflect on the relationship of advanced technologies with the natural environment.
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Resituating Economic Renewal and Social Welfare Through Participatory Design and Codesign in Marginalized Canadian Communities
Awarded: $65,378
Principal Investigator:
Ranee Lee, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design
In this project, Lee will examine the strengths and drawbacks of participatory and codesign approaches to economic renewal, focusing on two Canadian sites: Regent Park in Toronto and Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador. This two-year endeavour will produce channels to support marginalized population sectors, with a particular focus on women.
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Designing the Pluriversal Hub: A Platform for Knowledge Mobilization, Visualization and Translation to Connect Multiple Worlds
Awarded: $74,944
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Renata Leitao, Instructor in the Faculty of Design and Adjunct Faculty member
Co-applicant:
Immony Mèn, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Visual arts and communication design can be key instruments to decolonizing knowledge. In this research project, the investigators will collaborate with two Indigenous communities: Atikamekw (Canada) and Assurini (Brazil) to create a methodology of collaborative image-making as knowledge production. The project will also produce an online platform that will enable intercultural translation between different knowledge systems.
The project team proposes that points of connection and translation for incommensurable knowledge systems must be multisensory, using images, experiences and storytelling. Through this work the researchers will develop new ways to record, code and share knowledge among cultures that have been marginalized by the Western model of knowledge production.
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Imagining Diasporic Experiences through Digital Storytelling
Awarded: $62,368
Principal Investigator:
Immony Mèn, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Co-applicant:
Lilian Leung, Digital Futures Graduate 2021
Florence Yee, Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design Graduate 2020
This two-year project will bring together communities, artists and researchers to examine diasporic experience and oral histories through interactive documentary.
Individuals from Southeast Asian diasporas will use digital media practices to learn, apply and share stories that reveal their relations to their ancestral homeland.
Through community-focused workshops the project contributors will produce creative works that reimagine the application of game engines, mixed reality experiences and 3D capturing processes to visualize collective memory, preserve cultural practices and assemble a diverse notion of belonging.