Canada Research Chairs

Canada Research Chair in Design for Health
Tier 2 - 1st Term 2018 - 2023; renewed 2023 - 2028, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

It’s tempting to make sweeping statements about the health care sector, such as that it is dominated by science or that doctors hold too much power. But the reality may be far more complex. Dr. Katherine Sellen, Canada Research Chair in Design for Health, believes that better-designed health care tools could offer improved, alternative ways of doing things—especially when it comes to bringing about change.

To date, the adoption of new health care tools has not been universally successful. Often, the failure is caused by clinician and staff resistance or lack of adoption. There is currently a gap, in terms of new approaches and frameworks, in guiding the design of tools and systems used in highly dynamic and human situations. Examples include urgent situations, such as first aid response, and highly critical calculations, such as opiate medication ordering.

Sellen and her research team are designing effective information tools to perform small, discreet tasks in health care. These may include new ways to represent information in specific medical situations, such as medication calculations, as well as tools to support complex tasks. They are also designing information for dynamic situations, such as emergencies.

At its broadest level, research by Sellen and her team will create new design techniques for various areas of health and well-being, using participatory and inclusive design approaches. It will also explore how designed objects, interactions and experiences can be personally and community-relevant as well as evidence-based.

Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice
Tier 1 - 2015 - 2022, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Stories of indigenous and non-indigenous relations are often described as a series of clashes, often ending with defeat and segregation. But despite all the chaos and collision, these stories have led to a remarkable level of creative output over time. In fact, it seems that no matter how cultures interact, their relationships can spark many artists’ imaginations.

Dr. Gerald McMaster, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice, is investigating indigenous visual culture in the context of “contact zones” (areas where two or more cultures communicate and negotiate), cultural entanglement, voice and global indigeneity.

Working with colleagues in Europe, South America and Australia, McMaster and his research team investigate how cultures influence and inspire one another artistically. His work also addresses the impacts of colonialism, modernity and globalization on the production of indigenous art, as well as how it is received by non-indigenous societies.

McMaster and his team are focusing their research on three key areas: on indigenous Canadian artists who have represented European and Euro-Canadian or American newcomers visually or textually; on the creative developments of two isolated indigenous communities in Canada and Australia that differ historically, environmentally, and culturally, yet share political concerns; and on the tangled social and cultural histories of indigenous peoples and European outsiders in the Arctic and Amazon—two extreme and environmentally sensitive places that have demanded very specific human adaptations.

Ultimately, McMaster’s work will lead to a new understanding of how relationships affect artistic expression among indigenous peoples in colonial contexts.