Faculty of Education | Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS)

Study of global aid reductions awarded more than $500,000

qings — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:23:23 +0000

Rachel Silver, associate professor in Faculty of Education, has received a $500,000 grant to study how Malawian schools and educational organizations are adapting to international aid cuts, with insights that could inform education policy and development strategies around the world. Silver, is also a faculty affiliate in the Faculty of Graduate Studies Development Studies program and examines power dynamics in international development and humanitarian aid structures. She had the opportunity to observe how funding reductions ripple through relationships in schools and programs, which inspired a larger project: investigating how Malawians working in the education sector navigate shifts in austerity.

91��ɫ research challenges how healthy aging is defined

qings — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:10:10 +0000

A new study led by Natalia Balyasnikova, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, is calling for a shift in how healthy aging is understood globally. Published in the Journal of Global Ageing, the study responds to the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, an international framework aimed at improving the lives of older adults through age-friendly environments, better care systems and efforts to combat ageism. While these priorities are important, Balyasnikova and her co-authors – all co-conveners of the Educational Gerontology Special Interest Group at the British Society of Gerontology – felt it reflected a recurring gap.

Following 50 years of Canadian life: 91��ɫ study chronicles education, work, family life of baby boomers

vinish — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:00:56 +0000

91��ɫ researchers have captured half a century of Canadian life in a landmark study that began in Ontario classrooms and now spans generations. Culminating in a new book titled The Story of a Generation, the research marks the longest-running Canadian generational study of its kind, following nearly 50 years in the lives of a cohort of high school students who graduated in 1973. The project originated with Paul Anisef, professor emeritus at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies who began with a survey of high school students to help the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities understand and project post-secondary enrolment.

Graduate studies award strengthens support for underrepresented scholars

vinish — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:44:49 +0000

A new Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) award will help underrepresented scholars balance research with caregiving and community responsibilities, providing financial relief and supporting equity, inclusion and access. Students who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) often face inequities in access to funding – particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, community obligations or who pursue graduate studies later in life, notes Alice MacLachlan, vice-provost and dean of FGS. These barriers can limit scholars’ ability to participate fully in research and pursue advanced study at the highest level.

Doctoral student earns recognition for social justice research, advocacy

vinish — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 16:23:27 +0000

Prilly Bicknell-Hersco, a 91��ɫ PhD student in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, is one of this year’s Rising Graduate Scholars selected by The EDU Ledger, a leading higher education magazine, for making a meaningful impact in academia and beyond. The Rising Graduate Scholars recognition, presented annually by The EDU Ledger, honours a select group of minority graduate students in North America whose research, leadership and community engagement demonstrate emerging promise in higher education. Bicknell-Hersco's work centres on her doctoral research, which examines how Black students with non-visible, undiagnosed, or undisclosed disabilities experience barriers in post-secondary education.

Sustainability in action: 91��ɫ alumni named leaders for driving environmental change

vinish — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 13:16:44 +0000

Two 91��ɫ alumni are among Canada’s 2025 Clean50 leaders for their innovative and lasting contributions to environmental impact and climate action. Each year, the Clean50 Awards celebrate 50 individuals from across Canada whose work over the previous two years has created measurable progress toward a cleaner, more sustainable future. This year, two 91��ɫ alumni have earned recognition, reflecting the University’s continued leadership in preparing graduates who create lasting environmental impact across industries and communities.

91��ɫ-led podcast offers new voice for Canadian Jewish studies

vinish — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:21:00 +0000

91��ɫ Professor David Koffman knows the power of a good conversation. As a historian and executive producer of the new podcast Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies, he’s betting that the best way to bring fresh scholarship to a wider audience isn’t another journal article – it’s a smart, human exchange you can listen to on a walk, a commute or over coffee. Koffman, an associate professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), is editor-in-chief of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies. He is also the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry.

91��ɫ U alumni excel at Canadian Screen Awards

vinish — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 13:01:24 +0000

Alumni from 91��ɫ’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), Osgoode Hall Law School, Schulich School of Business, the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Graduate Studies have made a significant mark on the Canadian entertainment industry this year, taking home top honours at the Canadian Screen Awards. From reality television and animated series, to award-winning documentaries, 91��ɫ alumni accepted a total of 19 awards, demonstrating their influential roles in the Canadian entertainment scene. The Canadian Screen Awards are known for honouring contributions to Canadian media across film, television and digital media.

PhD candidate receives award for teaching excellence

vinish — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 13:58:53 +0000

Dr. Sheila Harms, MD, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, is the recipient of the prestigious 2020 U21 Health Sciences Group (HSG) Teaching Excellence Award.

The award was established in 2014 by deans of medicine as a way to celebrate and reward exceptional educational scholarship, particularly amongst research-intensive universities, across the U21 HSG network. The award also helps to nurture international cooperation, one of U21’s key objectives, by offering faculty from different universities and regions, opportunities to work together on exciting, interdisciplinary projects.

"Questions of learning in academic psychiatry simultaneously require a commitment to a discourse of the mind. It has been through the scholarly work of education that I have found a rich place to encounter thought anew,” says Harms. “This award depends on the possibility for shared educational transactions marked by success and failure alike. For this I am deeply grateful to the many students and educators who have created a generative space for me to engage and explore what it means to have an education in psychiatry. I am honoured to receive this award and the possibilities it opens for ongoing educational transformation."

Clinically, Harms practices as a child and adolescent psychiatrist at McMaster Children’s Hospital with a focus on general outpatient care. Academically, she is in the role of associate Chair education within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. She is actively involved in supervising undergraduate and postgraduate learners as well as teaching within the Faculty of Health Sciences. Harms has acted in numerous educational leadership roles within the department, including the program director for postgraduate psychiatry training and has held the role of the inaugural program director for subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry. She is also an active member on the Psychiatry Exam Board for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Harms directs the global mental health initiative in the department which includes leading a long-standing collaboration and novel educational initiative at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Western Uganda, where she also serves on faculty.

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Harms is focusing on enhancing educational scholarship activities across the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. As part of these efforts, she is pursuing a PhD in education at 91��ɫ under the supervision of Distinguished Research Professor and 91��ɫ Research Chair in Pedagogy and Psycho-Social Transformation, Deborah Britzman. Harms' dissertation is titled “A different kind of education: Notes from a psychiatrist,” and her focus is on critical histories in psychiatry. She is particularly interested in thinking about medical education using psychodynamic concepts as they are applied to learning, in an attempt to understand educational phenomenology that are both relevant and pressing in contemporary medical education. The dissertation’s themes include studies of uncertainty in learning, difficult knowledge, the role of bodies in the study of the mind and the work of encountering colonialism.

“It is my great pleasure to congratulate Dr. Harms on her illustrious award. The field of psychiatric education, as with any education today, must undergo major transformations and this award recognizes Dr. Harms as one of its creative international innovators,” said Britzman. “Dr. Harms entered the PhD program with a four-year SSHRC and a deep interest in problems of psychoanalytic approaches to education. Her dissertation, 'A different kind of education: Notes from a psychiatrist' is a model of humanity and generosity. Dr. Harms continues to distinguish herself as a leading scholar, now by opening psychiatric experience with autoethnographic methods with psychoanalytic sensitivity.”

Harms has been recently elected to the American College of Psychiatrists, the elite scientific college dedicated to professional leadership and the highest standards of psychiatry through teaching, education, research and clinical practice.

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