O鈥橰eilly is an expert in motherhood research, founder and editor-in-chief of the聽Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, publisher of Demeter Press, author of 20-plus books,聽and professor in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Gender, Sexuality and Women鈥檚 Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS).

鈥淭he aim and purpose of my research over the last three decades is to put mothers and mothering at the centre of academic research and public policy. To achieve this, I believe, we need a feminism for mothers, what I have termed matricentric feminism 鈥� a feminism that makes motherhood the business of feminism by positioning mothers鈥� needs and concerns as the starting point for a theory and politics on and for women鈥檚 empowerment,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly. 鈥淚ndeed, a mother-centred feminism is needed because mothers 鈥� arguably more so than women in general 鈥� remain disempowered despite 40-plus years of feminism. With these three SSHRC-funded research projects, I hope to give voice to mothers whose identities and experiences have been particularly marginalized in scholarship and policy, older young mothers in Canada and mothers deleteriously impacted by the pandemic.鈥�

The awards are:

SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant (January 2021) for 鈥淢others and COVID-19; The impact of the pandemic on mothers and mothering in Canada and Australia鈥�

This one-year, $24,927 grant will support a research project that examines the impact of COVID-19 and its aftermath on mothers and motherwork, with the aim of developing social research and public policy to inform, support, and empower mothers through and after the pandemic. Mothers do the bulk of domestic labour, childcare and eldercare, and with social isolation, the burden of care work has increased exponentially in both time and concern as mothers are running households with little or no support and under close to impossible conditions. However, there has been little media coverage or social research on how families are managing under COVID-19.

This project will examine Canadian and Australian mothers' unpaid work in the home (e.g. homeschooling, house cleaning, childcare and eldercare) and wage labour during a pandemic, and will examine the commonalities and differences between the countries. It involves 30 mothers (15 from Canada and 15 from Australia) who will be interviewed via Zoom from all regions of each country and with diverse backgrounds in terms of race, class, sexuality and ability.

The project will examine these challenges across Canada and Australia to consider and compare the impact of COVID-19 on mothers in different regions to understand the nuanced complexity of the pandemic and to develop appropriate resources and policies for each national context.

This Partnership Engagement Grant is the first to provide a comparative study of the impact of COVID-19 on mothers in Canada and Australia.

SSHRC Insight Grant (April 2021) for 鈥淥lder young mothers: An overlooked cohort in research and social policy鈥�

This is a three-year grant of $71,411 to support a project that examines the challenges facing "older young mothers" (aged between 18 and 24), such as access to post-secondary education, housing, employment, childcare, community support and advocacy, and the deleterious societal views and cultural representations of young motherhood. Current research on young motherhood largely focuses on younger teens; this study looks at the specific needs of young mothers at the adult end of the spectrum.

The project will contribute to current research on older young motherhood in three significant ways. First, with particular attention to how the new social construct of older young motherhood informs and frames their experiences of mothering, the project will assess current policies to develop ones that better address the challenges these mothers face. Second, by exploring how this cohort's experience with motherhood is shaped by race, class, ethnicity and geographic location, the study will contribute to our understanding of intersectionality. And third, the project will explore how older young mothers resist normative discourses that define and position them as unfit mothers to effect cultural change.

The project will assess how discourses and policies impact this new cohort of young mothers across cultural differences and how they may be resisted and reformed. The findings will be widely disseminated to community agencies, government, and the general public through research reports, policy briefs, media interviews and on social media.

SSHRC Connection Grant (July 2021) for the conference 鈥淢others, Families, and COVID-19: Building Back Better鈥�

This one-year, $24,250 grant supports the first international conference on the impact of COVID-19 on mothers and families. Current research shows that sustainable and holistic COVID-19 recovery will require more than a vaccine. In many ways, the pandemic has acted as a beacon, further exposing long-standing cracks in systems of caregiving, women's rights and gender equality.

The proposed conference, "Mothers, Families, and COVID-19: Building Back Better," co-hosted by the Mothers Matter Centre (MMC) and 91亚色, examines the impact of the pandemic on mothers' care work and wage labour in the context of employment, schooling, communities, families, and the relationships of parents and children. With a global perspective, the conference will explore the increasing complexity and demands of childcare, domestic labour, eldercare and home schooling under the pandemic protocols; the intricacies and difficulties of performing wage labour at home; the impact of the pandemic on mothers' employment; and the strategies mothers have used to manage the competing demands of care work and wage labour during the pandemic.

This conference, which has 87 confirmed speakers from 12 countries, will explore the impact of COVID-19 on mothers' wage work and care labour, with a focus on what "building back better" tangibly looks like for the mothers most affected. It will allow for a timely examination of, and response to, the impact of COVID-19 on mothers and families as countries transition to a post-pandemic world.

The knowledge mobilized by and through the conference will be widely disseminated as a report to diverse social agencies and will be preserved through the recording of the conference, which will be stored and made available through the MMC website. Moreover, articles developed from the conference will be published in a special double issue of The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative in 2022 and will be made available in open access format.

鈥淚 am deeply honoured and delighted to receive these grants that I hope will create new and innovative research and policy to empower these mothers and advance matricentric feminism,鈥� says O鈥橰eilly.

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A total of 20 projects led by LA&PS faculty were announced as recipients of the 2020 Insight Grants (19 awards valued at a combined $2,145,491) and 2020 Partnership Development Grants (one award valued at $199,951).

The Insight Grants support long-term research initiatives for two to five years, while the Partnership Development Grant will support a one- to three-year project organized through formal collaborations with public, private and not-for-profit organizations.

鈥淟A&PS researchers are contributing crucial knowledge across the many disciplines of social science and humanities,鈥� said LA&PS Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Ravi de Costa. 鈥淪SHRC Insight Grants enable leading experts to undertake original and innovative kinds of inquiry, and our colleagues鈥� success in this program is a testament to the strength and depth of research going on in the Faculty.鈥�

LA&PS researchers are investigating important topics, including social implications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, connections between language and community in Canada, overlooked demographics in social policies and more.

鈥淟A&PS is steadfast in its commitment to research excellence and to building on this excellence going forward. Across the Faculty, our instructors are at the forefront of their respective fields 鈥� enriching our understanding of the humanities, social sciences and professional studies in meaningful ways,鈥� said LA&PS Dean J.J. McMurtry. 鈥淕rant funding from SSHRC will help us continue to accomplish this goal. I鈥檓 excited to congratulate this year鈥檚 recipients.鈥�

LA&PS 2020 Insight Grant recipients (principal investigators):

• Lalaie Ameeriar, Department of Anthropology;
• Amelie Barras, Department of Social Science;
• Antoine Djogbenou, Department of Economics;
• Alan Durston, Department of History;
• Jonathan Edmondson, Department of History;
• Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, Department of Sociology;
• Eva Haque, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics;
• Mark Hayward, Department of Communication & Media Studies;
• Michael Herren, Department of Humanities;
• Eva Karpinski, School of Gender, Sexuality & Women鈥檚 Studies;
• Ruth King, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics;
• Maria Liegghio, School of Social Work;
• Carmela Murdocca, Department of Sociology;
• Andrea O鈥橰eilly, School of Gender, Sexuality & Women鈥檚 Studies;
• Selcuk Ozyurt, Department of Economics;
• Carolyn Podruchny, Department of History;
• Andrey Stoyanov, Department of Economics;
• Leah Vosko, Department of Politics; and
• Xueqing Xu, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics.

LA&PS 2020 Partnership Development Grant recipient (principal investigator):

• Marcello Musto, Department of Sociology.

See the complete lists of  and  recipients on the SSHRC website.

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The  initiative was created to strengthen interdisciplinary research in areas of strategic importance to the University. The program will provide funding to selected research clusters to support globally leading research excellence that will offer world-class training opportunities for high-calibre personnel. It is also intended to serve as a catalyst to secure future large-scale follow-on funding, through federal, provincial or other external research funding programs, including the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and the New Frontiers in Research Fund Transformation stream. In doing so, this new initiative will scale the development of research teams and clusters to position the University as a key node in national and international networks in strategic areas of interest. It will also enable impactful contributions towards the University鈥檚 Strategic Research Plan, the University Academic Plan and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Eligibility

For the purpose of this initiative, an interdisciplinary project is defined as one that crosses the mandate of at least two of the three federal research funding councils (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) and includes members from at least two Faculties, while a cluster must include a team of at least five researchers, one of whom must be an early career researcher.

Early career researchers are defined as individuals who, as of 2021, have five years or less experience since their first academic appointment, with the exception of career interruptions (e.g. maternity or parental leave, extended sick leave, clinical training and family care) that occurred after their appointment. For all leaves, except professional leaves (such as training-related, sabbatical and administrative-related leaves), the five-year window is extended by twice the time interruption taken.

Research themes

The program will provide funding for a limited number of projects across select thematic areas, including: artificial intelligence and society; digital cultures and fintech; disaster and health emergency; global health; and many more.

To learn more about the specific themes and details to submit a proposal, including the adjudication and reporting process, view the PDF of the call for submissions at .

Key dates and contact information

• The deadline to submit a notice of intent is June 7 by 4:30 p.m.
• Full proposals (by invitation only) are due July 30 by 4:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Mark Roseman, director, Strategic & Institutional Research Initiatives (SIRI), Office of Research Services, at roseman@yorku.ca.

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A study recently published in the聽Journal for the Association of Consumer Research聽finds that advanced (aged 50-plus) female style influencers use the social media platform Instagram to actively fight gendered ageism rampant in the fashion and beauty industries.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded study was undertaken by Schulich School of Business Associate Professor聽聽in collaboration with HEC Montr茅al Associate Professor Marie-Agn猫s Parmentier, who is a 91亚色 alumna.

A growing body of consumer research on intersectionality in the marketplace focuses on identifying overlapping oppressive consumer identity categories, such as gender and race. Yet this work tends to prioritize microlevel agency over power relations within structures and practices of domination.

Drawing on the more transformative aspects of intersectionality theory, as well as a focused media and netnographic investigation of the 'Advanced Style' movement in North America, the study examines how advanced (aged 50-plus) female style influencers help transform the ageist and sexist fashion and beauty markets.

Specifically, these women enact two forms of embodied resistance informed by the Western dominant discourse of successful aging (deconstructing gendered and ageist fashion and defying gendered and ageist beauty) using the social media platform Instagram.

"It is inspiring to see regular women turned influencers trying to change not only gender, but also age discrimination in the fashion, beauty, and even influencer markets," said Veresiu.

These consumers-turned-influencers engage in online 鈥渟tyleactivism鈥� demanding designers to create ready-to-wear options for their changing bodies. They equally reject the anti-aging beauty market, opting instead to popularize natural, graying hair, wrinkles, and body scars through their Instagram posts. When selecting brands for collaboration as typical influencers, these 'Advanced Style Influencers' often refuse to be the token senior.

The study concludes with future research directions on the transformative potential of embodied resistance for various doubly oppressive gendered and ageist marketplaces.

鈥淵ou too can follow the Advanced Style influencers鈥� consumer activism journeys on Instagram using the hashtag #advancedstyle,鈥� said Veresiu.

Read the study "."

Courtesy of YFile.

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The results from these Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies research projects could affect the response to and management of COVID-19 now and similar outbreaks of disease in the future.

From CIHR, Assistant Professor , coordinator of the Disaster and Emergency Management (DEM) Program at 91亚色, will receive $499,121 to examine how Chinese diaspora communities in globalized urban centres are coping with COVID-19. From SSHRC, Assistant Professor of the DEM program will receive $428,816 to track how Canadians understand and perceive the outbreak, while Assistant Professor of sociology will receive $176,256, from CIHR,聽 to study issues of trust and how it hampers prevention and control measures.

鈥�91亚色 is delighted to learn of CIHR and SSHRC鈥檚 support for three timely projects from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,鈥� said Interim Vice-President Research & Innovation Rui Wang. 鈥淭his exemplifies 91亚色鈥檚 leadership in public health response to COVID-19 and its impact. With this funding, 91亚色 will provide essential insights in the rapid research response to contribute to the global effort to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.鈥�

As the frequency of disease outbreaks increases in a connected world with rapid urbanization, there is a need to understand how public fears, stigmatization and attitudes, along with misinformation, affect public health efforts.

鈥淟A&PS has always been about producing research that has real and immediate impact in the world, and we are incredibly proud of the work of our DEM and sociology researchers in their respective fields 鈥� especially as it concerns public issues as timely as the recent COVID-19 outbreak,鈥� said the Dean of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies J.J. McMurtry.

More about the projects

Mamuji鈥檚 project aims to understand the consequences of COVID-19 as experienced by Chinese communities in Toronto and Nairobi, including the social impacts of discrimination and Sinophobia on personal well-being and livelihoods. Her team, which includes Associate Professor of the DEM program, plans to work with emergency management professionals in both locations to develop a culturally specific public education campaign and knowledge-sharing events to counter misinformation, disinformation, stigma and fear, and to promote community cohesion.

Kennedy鈥檚 project, which will include Associate Professor of 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Associate Professor of the University of Guelph, will mount a large-scale, two-year coast-to-coast survey to document how Canadians understand the outbreak. It will explore who Canadians trust for information on COVID-19, how they鈥檙e adapting their behaviours, and how their perceptions of risk changes throughout the next couple of years. To participate, people can sign up to be notified () when the survey is released.

Wu鈥檚 research will bring frontline researchers from China together with experts in trust and public health in Canada and Sweden to explore people鈥檚 trust in government, health agencies, and in other people and groups during a time of crisis. He will look at how their level of trust shapes public responses to COVID-19, such as compliance with control policies and methods of prevention, but also, how disease outbreaks affect those levels of trust and can lead to a rise in xenophobia.

Courtesy of YFile.

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Access to justice is the cornerstone of the Canadian legal system. Five years ago, Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Sean Rehaag, director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at 91亚色, led a groundbreaking study that examined access to justice for refugees in Canada. This research concluded that the handling of refugee cases was inconsistent and arbitrary; the outcome depended on which judge decided the case.

With funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, Rehaag reinvestigated the same issue half a decade later, but found that little has changed. 鈥淭he luck of the draw remains a stubbornly persistent feature of the judicial review process. This is unacceptable,鈥� Rehaag says. 鈥淩efugee determinations involve life and death questions. Change is urgently needed.鈥�

Refugees could be subjected to torture, cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, or death if they were returned to their country of nationality

This increasingly relevant and timely work, the findings of which were accepted for publication in the Queen鈥檚 Law Journal (2019), could not be more policy applicable.

Refugees represent an acutely vulnerable population

A snapshot of immigration and refugees underscores the importance of this kind of research for Canada. First, immigration is growing:

• Newcomers represent nearly 22 per cent of today鈥檚 population 鈥� this could topple the record number (22 per cent) recorded in the 1921 census, the highest level since Confederation (StatsCan, 2016 census).
• According to StatCan鈥檚 projections, the proportion of Canada鈥檚 foreign-born population could reach up to 30 per cent by聽2036.

Second, refugee numbers are growing. While refugees represented 10 per cent of all immigrants in 2014, this percentage grew to 24 in 2016 (StatsCan, 2016 census).

Reflecting this influx, the number of refugee claims in Canada has risen from more than 10,000 in 2013 to more than 47,000 in 2017, according to Rehaag.

Refugees represent a vulnerable population. They face persecution in their country of nationality based on race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social or political group. If they were returned to their country of nationality, they could be subjected to a danger of torture, to a risk to their lives, or to a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

Refugee claims have risen from 10,000-plus in 2013 to 47,000-plus in 2017

Study designed to check back with the system after earlier research

As mentioned, Rehaag鈥檚 research updates an earlier study of decision-making in the refugee law context in Canada鈥檚 Federal Court. The initial study, which looked at 23,000 applicants from 2005 to 2010, found that outcomes in Federal Court applications for judicial review of refugee determinations depended all too often on the luck of the draw 鈥� which judge decided the case. Rehaag found that individual judges granted leave at very different rates. (Applicants who want the Federal Court to review their refugee determination must first apply for 鈥渓eave,鈥� or permission from the court.)

A note about process: Federal Court judges do not grant (or refuse) refugee status. Instead, they hear applications for judicial review of decisions made by Immigration & Refugee Board (IRB) members. If they grant an application for judicial review of a negative refugee determination, it does not mean that they are granting refugee protection; it just means that they are overturning the initial decision and sending the case back down to the IRB to be redetermined. There, at this stage, the IRB could choose to grant or not grant refugee protection.

Since the initial study, the Federal Court adopted measures to address these variations. It was in this context that Rehaag wanted to check in again and see if the new measures were effective. This time, in September 2016, he collected data from over 33,000 court dockets from 2008 to 2016. He used a computer program鈥檚 written code to parse data from online court dockets, then he optimized the code, through trial and error, to improve the accuracy rate to 99 per cent.

Key findings indicate more work needs to be done

Sean Rehaag

The findings of this study show that the situation hasn鈥檛 changed much since the past research was undertaken.

鈥淔rom 2013 to 2016, if a claimant was lucky with leave judge assignment, then they were more than ten times more likely to succeed with their application than if they were unlucky with leave judge assignment,鈥� Rehaag explains. 鈥淢ost importantly, this isn鈥檛 a phenomenon restricted to a handful of outlier judges.鈥�

Policy recommendations aimed at key actors in legal system

Rehaag has some compelling recommendations for reform.

1. For Parliament: abolish or reform the leave requirement.聽He believes that refugee claimants should not need to go through a leave requirement, which has proven to be an arbitrary barrier.
2. For the court: same judge for leave and merits.聽In most applications for judicial review where leave is granted, a different judge decides the case on the merits at the judicial review stage than the judge who decided to grant leave. Rehaag suggests that this judge be the same in both cases. 鈥淭his would stop amplifying the luck of the draw to the disadvantage of refugee claimants,鈥� he explains.
3. For judges: alternative judicial processes.聽To avoid subjectivity, Rehaag suggests that the leave judge not consider whether they think a reasonably arguable case has been made, but rather consider whether any of their colleagues might be of the view that the applicant has presented a reasonably arguable case.

Rehaag presses for change. 鈥淭he time for study is over. It鈥檚 now time for action,鈥� he emphasizes.

To read the working draft of the article 鈥淛udicial Review of Refugee Determinations (II): Revisiting the Luck of the Draw,鈥� which will be published in the Queen鈥檚 Law Journal (2019), visit the . To read the original research, visit the . To learn more about Rehaag, visit his.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity such as artificial intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the 聽for a glimpse of the year鈥檚 successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Urban studies is not what it used to be. Today, it encompasses the planetary condition, considers the state of humanity, intersects with issues such as mass migration and global warming, and poses some pretty tough questions about our future 鈥� arguably, some of the most pressing and timely in the early 21st century.

Linda Peake

In a new article, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Linda Peake, director of the City Institute at 91亚色, unpacks some critical debates in urbanization and summarizes existing thought, with the help of co-authors from 91亚色, the University of Toronto and Memorial University.

The article, titled 鈥淧lacing planetary urbanization in other fields of vision鈥� and published in Society and Space (2018), is theoretical but accessible with an underlying sense of urgency. It, along with an impressive record of publication, reinforces Peake鈥檚 thought leadership in this key academic area.

This research was funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Peake鈥檚 co-authors were 91亚色 PhD students Darren Patrick and Gokboru Tanyildiz; the City Institute鈥檚 postdoctoral visitor, Professor Roza Tchoukaleyska (now at Memorial University); and University of Toronto (U of T) professors Rajyashree Reddy and Sue Ruddick.

Today鈥檚 urban studies is situated on a planetary level that鈥檚 broad and enriched

Urban studies is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses the social sciences and humanities, intersecting with many areas of academic study, including environmental studies, geography, history, Indigenous studies, literature, political economy, political science, sociology, urban planning and women鈥檚 studies. It delves into topics such as the climate emergency, inequality, immigration and forced displacement.

Not surprisingly, for some academics the urban now encompasses a generalized planetary condition that considers humanity鈥檚 possible futures. This new scope is very broad and, as a result, it raises new theoretical and political questions.

Here is a sample of some of the questions posed in Peake鈥檚 article, many admittedly open or unanswered:

• How do we best conceptualize the global urban condition and its implications for social change?
• How does planetary urbanization contribute to our understanding of radical social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and Indigenous resurgences like Idle No More?
• Who is included in a vision of the urban subject-citizen?
• How does migration factor into planetary urbanization?
• What are the political implications for urban change, with anxiety as the dominant effect in the early 21st century?

Peake is the right person to be fielding these mammoth questions. She is a feminist geographer with research foci in urbanization and gendered urban insecurities. In addition to her long-standing interest in urban-based research on women, she also engages in work on whiteness and feminist methodologies and, more recently, on questions of mental health and the academy.

This article asks: How does planetary urbanization contribute to our understanding of radical social movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter?

Article unpacks how the field has evolved, looks at potential to transform conditions

Peake and her co-authors open the article by discussing the politics of knowledge production and providing an overview of how their joint thinking has evolved over the past few years, often referring to The Urban Revolution by Henri Lefebvre (1970) for context. This book is generally believed to be the first substantive critique of urban society.

In this way, the article is a very well-done literature review 鈥� that is, a scholarly paper that presents the findings of current knowledge as well as theoretical and methodological contributions of a particular topic.

Peake also discusses the pioneering work that has been done at 91亚色. From 2014 to 2016, she and her co-authors organized a series of workshops and collective discussions between urban scholars at the City Institute and U of T鈥檚 Department of Geography, which proved to be game-changing. The formation of the aptly named Planetary Urbanization Reading Group led the academics to successfully apply for SSHRC funding to formalize their reading efforts into a workshop.

鈥淭ogether, we engaged critique that moved beyond the urban. Participants brought queer and feminist perspectives and theory to the table, applied anti-racist and anti-imperialist lenses, positioned themselves in both the global south and north, and spoke from both early and well-established stages of their research careers,鈥� Peake explains. 鈥淲e sought to create a political space where many scholars could engage in productive discussion,鈥� she adds.

This field of study looks at rising inequality between urban areas and increasingly virulent forms of exploitation and oppression

Here, the intention was not to establish consensus or unity, or to minimize differences and disagreements. Rather, this group sought to create a space for collective work with the potential to transform the conditions in which they were all operating vis-脿-vis the university.

Different fields of vision

Peake and her co-authors also discuss dominant approaches to the study of the urban 鈥� Marxist, feminist, postcolonial 鈥� all of which seek to study rising inequality between urban areas and increasingly virulent forms of exploitation and oppression.

They focus on a feminist engagement with planetary urbanization that expands on Lefebvre鈥檚 insights to argue that the intensification and extension of the urbanization process is now planetary, with the future of human life itself being fought out in and across the urban.

This article will be of interest to many: academics in disciplines ranging from sociology and economics to geography and urban studies; urban planners; and government stakeholders at all three levels 鈥� municipal, provincial and federal.

To read the article in Society and Space, visit the journal or Peake鈥檚 entry on or . To learn more about Peake鈥檚 scholarship, visit the or her .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity such as artificial intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the for a glimpse of the year鈥檚 successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Leah F. Vosko

鈥�91亚色 is delighted that Professor Vosko, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender & Work at 91亚色, has been awarded the SSHRC Impact Award,鈥� said Interim Vice-President Research & Innovation Rui Wang. 鈥淪he is Canada鈥檚 foremost expert on the complex national and global problem of precarious employment. Her leadership in this area has affected policy changes that have led to key societal benefits.鈥�

鈥淧rofessor Vosko鈥檚 achievement is a source of great pride for the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,鈥� said Interim Dean JJ McMurtry. 鈥淗er research on precarious employment has expanded our understanding of the labour market in Canada, and we are thrilled to see her work is getting the recognition it deserves.鈥�

Vosko,a full professor in the Department of Politics, is an internationally renowned social scientist. Having overseen numerous path-breaking research projects, her contributions to scholarly knowledge, networks and learning tools have made lasting impacts within academe and on public policy and make her most deserving of this award.

She has written numerous books, articles, book chapters and technical reports, as well as edited many scholarly volumes. She has been recognized with election to the Royal Society of Canada, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research, Tier 1 and 2 Canada Research Chair appointments and a Premier鈥檚 Research Excellence Award.

Vosko鈥檚 contributions to understanding the profound challenges of labour market insecurity cannot be overstated. She has made significant scholarly advancements by devising a now widely applied, nuanced conceptualization of precarious employment and creating novel approaches to its measurement and alleviation. Her insights demand that we re-examine how we understand and confer labour market membership, and her leadership of robust collaborations has resulted in concrete policy changes that have improved working life in Canada.

The annual Impact Awards recognize the highest achievements of outstanding researchers and research partners in the social sciences and humanities.聽 Vosko is 91亚色鈥檚 first faculty member to receive SSHRC鈥檚 prestigious Impact Award in the Insight Category.

To read the announcement, see the .

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The project being funded, 鈥淩ebooting Infant Pain Assessment,鈥� could give voice to preterm infants鈥� subjective experiences of pain, despite their inability to speak. The study will use machine learning to exponentially improve neonatal intensive care unit practice.

Pillai Riddell is the principal investigator (PI), with Professors Steven Wang (co-PI, Faculty of Science) and Aijun An (co-investigator, Lassonde School of Engineering) and Ian Stedman (Osgoode Hall Law School). Pillai Riddell is leading a team of 16 individuals across two countries and six sites. This is a highly collaborative international venture and it exemplifies cross-Faculty collaboration at 91亚色.

Left to right: Principal investigator Rebecca Pillai Riddell (Health), Co-principal investigator Steven Wang (Science), Co-investigator Aijun An (Lassonde School of Engineering) and researcher Ian Stedman (Osgoode Hall Law School)

鈥淭he AI (artificial intelligence) component in this project is important because it is enabling us to use continuous brain activity in a proposed clinical pain assessment application 鈥� to our knowledge, that鈥檚 a first anywhere in the world,鈥� says Pillai Riddell. 鈥�91亚色鈥檚 partnership with UCL (University College London) and McMaster University in this venture is a fantastic synergy of our combined expertise of behavioural and biological infant distress responses. I am thrilled to then be able to take our health content knowledge and take it to the next level with cutting-edge 91亚色 U artificial intelligence scientists in two sector-leading neonatal intensive care units 鈥� one in Canada (Mount Sinai) and one in the U.K. (University College London Hospital).

鈥淢oreover, this special Tri-Council opportunity inspired us to invite new social scientists at Osgoode Hall Law School (Ian Stedman) and University of Calgary to explore the ethical and social implications of computer-assisted clinical decision-making,鈥� she adds.

Desperate need for a better way forward for infant pain assessment

The need is great. Unmanaged pain in hospitalized infants has serious long-term complications. However, to manage pain, one must have accurate infant pain assessment. Infants cannot self-report their pain and current infant pain assessment tools used by health professionals have major problems because of the lack of specificity of current tools and bias in the caregivers who use these scales.

The researchers believe they have found a path towards a solution. 鈥淥ur international team of knowledge users and health/natural science/engineering/social science researchers have come together to build a machine learning algorithm that will learn how to discriminate invasive and non-invasive distress,鈥� Pillai Riddell explains.

Importantly, this will be the first time brain activity in infants is being considered in a potential clinical pain assessment tool

Three hundred babies and their mothers will be studied

A sample of 300 preterm infants and their mothers will be involved during a routine painful procedure. Pain indicators, such as facial grimacing, heart rate, brain electrical activity and oxygen levels will be used to train the algorithm to discriminate between the different types of distress.

鈥淭he complexity of pain requires a machine learning solution that is capable of modelling individual patterns of brain, behaviour and physiology during pain,鈥� Pillai Riddell explains.

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Imagine having your university classmates assume that you sell illegal drugs in between classes, missing out on job opportunities solely due to your home address or having a beverage thrown at you from a moving car. These are the searing experiences of Black youth recounted in a research paper by Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Andrea Davis and published in the聽Journal of Canadian Studies聽(2017). In this paper, she reflects on more than 45 years of official multicultural policy in Canada.

鈥淭he article argues that Black urban male youth, by situating their precarious life experiences on the margins of a set of core Canadian values, destabilize our understanding of Canadian society by revealing the ways in which they are routinely criminalized and pathologized, and by demanding greater access to upward mobility,鈥� Davis explains.

Her research is focused on the intersections of the literatures and cultures of the Black diasporas in the Caribbean, the United States and Canada. Her work encourages an intertextual cross-cultural dialogue about Black people鈥檚 experiences in diaspora.

This research was funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Study looks at the effects of violence on Black youth

In this paper, Davis draws on the documentary聽The Real Toronto聽(Madd Russian, 2005), filmed during the 鈥淪ummer of the Gun.鈥� Here, the racialized and immigrant neighbourhoods corresponded to 13 priority or 鈥渁t-risk鈥� areas of Toronto, defined as such by socioeconomic indicators such as income level and homicide rates.

With this documentary providing the historical context, Davis revisits the issue many years later. She is effectively checking in to see what has changed since 2005. Her paper presents the findings from her three-year transnational study of the effects of violence on Black youth in Canada and Jamaica, collected in 2013.

Davis assembled multidisciplinary team from eight university and community organizations

Focus groups revealed that many Black youth can鈥檛 get job interviews, simply due to their address

To undertake this work, Davis put together a multidisciplinary research team from eight university and community organizations in Canada and Jamaica. The goals of this project were twofold:

1. to examine the life experiences of Black Canadian and Jamaican youth, with special attention paid to their perceptions of and experiences with violence; and
2. to assess the impact of this violence on their educational and employment trajectories.

The researchers conducted two all-male focus groups between May and June 2013 in Toronto. A total of 24 Black males between the ages of 18 and 24 participated. To encourage trust, participants understood that their involvement was voluntary.

Participants were recruited through local youth organizations. Meetings took place in their local communities. Discussion in the focus groups was generated via both preset questions and free-flowing conversation. The youth were asked to describe and discuss their experiences, if any, with violence. Each tape-recorded session was roughly 90 minutes.

Findings shed light on failures of multicultural policy

Before presenting her findings, Davis provides a comprehensive literature review of all key research in this area, which sets the stage very well. Here, she explains the promise of democracy, the failure of Canada鈥檚 official multicultural policy in allowing youth full access to educational and employment opportunities to Black male youth, and the covert racism underlying this false narrative.

The focus groups brought to light the experiences of Black youth in their own words. One youth described his experiences with racism:

So I鈥檝e had the situation of moving 鈥� to school in Brock, St. Catharines, with majority white people, right. Everybody in my class 鈥� they鈥檙e all rich, upper-income families.鈥� So 鈥� I鈥檓 walking down the street 鈥� somebody driving by throws a milkshake at me screaming out the 鈥渘鈥� word. It happens. Or me, you know, sitting in 鈥� class.鈥� So now people are looking at me like, hey, that Black guy must sell drugs, and after the class they ask me if I have weed or something like that. And the professors would look at me, like, what is this guy doing in this class?

Another youth highlighted the limited options for Black youth in Toronto:

You try to better yourself through pursuing school or getting a job. But I wouldn鈥檛 be able to get a job because of the address that I have. I鈥檇 go to interviews,鈥� hand out my resum茅 but they鈥檇 see my area on the news with some guy getting shot, so they鈥檙e not going to want to hire me.鈥� So I change the address to my aunt鈥檚 address and do the same thing and then I get interviews. And then you notice that, hey, your whole neighbourhood is being stigmatized for being violent and nobody wants to hire you because of that.

Davis concludes that while multiculturalism promises respect for cultural differences, free education and access to jobs for all citizens regardless of national origin or ethnicity, this promise has failed. This is clearly illustrated in the first-hand experiences chronicled in this paper.

鈥淭hese youths remind us that we must be willing to identify and challenge our own racial, class, and gender privileges to understand how our and other cultures function in Canadian society. By coming to these questions, Canadians have a much better chance of modelling the kind of multicultural democracy that just might change the world,鈥� Davis concludes.

To read the article in the聽Journal of Canadian Studies, visit the聽. To learn more about Davis, visit her聽

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91亚色, follow us at聽, watch the聽聽and see the聽.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91亚色,聽muellerm@yorku.ca

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