The DARE award offers Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in research projects under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member from May to August. For Joanne Ong, who was selected for her sociology research project “China’s Urbanization in the Urban Age: A Scenic Approach,” the four-month collaboration with LA&PS Assistant Professor Cary Wu was the beginning of a mentorship that would chart the course for the next phase of her academic career.

Having now completed her BA in sociology, Ong is pursuing a master’s degree in sociology at 91��ɫ – and still working closely with Wu, whose mentorship she says was instrumental to her decision to apply to graduate studies in the subject.

“From DARE, I came to know that the desire to learn requires I be critical, persistent and focused on the experience, not just exposed to the material,” Ong said after her participation in the program. “By reconsidering my outlook, I was able to transform my learning strategies and develop a greater sense of curiosity.”

As a DARE student, Ong had the unique opportunity to work with Wu and learn to engage with literature and understand the crucially important but difficult process of writing with data in a way that turns data-based conceptualizations and research into engaging storytelling that is cogent and clear.

Ong says by working under Wu, she also developed a number of soft skills from the professor’s effective feedback and guidance on her work. Working with Wu, she said, was one of the “greatest highlights and learning experiences” of her undergraduate studies.

During her undergraduate studies, Ong also published an article in  that examined what makes in-person classes unique and different from online-learning. Through discussion, 14 students who connected with each other through Wu’s Research Methods sociology courses, identified seven main themes that outline why students prefer in-person instruction. A summary of the seven elements are outlined in this .

Ong and Wu have continued to collaborate on research during Ong’s graduate studies, and the 2020 DARE project has resulted in a co-authored review essay titled “A scenic walk through Brenner’s New Urban Spaces in Toronto” in the journal International Sociology where Ong and Wu use images taken in the city of Toronto to interpret and visually explain some of critical urban theorist Neil Brenner’s influential book . It was published in November 2021.

The research, says Wu, is about how to theorize the urban and urbanization process in today’s global urban age.

“Everywhere is urban. How do we study the urban and urbanization process? We collect data through walking the city of Toronto and use photographs to explore the visible and hidden scenes of urban life,” says Wu. “We highlight the importance of focusing on all kinds of urban elements such as demographics, amenities, and activities as well as sounds and smell to capture the core meanings of urbanity and how they shape social life. The research encourages us to think of urban places as scenes.”

Ong’s research interests also include the neighbourhood effect and inequalities across social categories of race and gender. Under the supervision of Wu, she is currently researching how the gender confidence gap varies throughout the life course using quantitative methods.

About DARE

The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) was launched in 2017 to allow students to fully engage in a professional research project with one of our world-class faculty members. Learn more about this year’s projects and awards in this .

The 2022 DARE competition was announced Dec. 1. Faculty members interested in submitting a DARE project to work with a DARE student should complete the mach form for DARE research project postings (Stage 1) by Jan. 6, 2022 at 4 p.m.

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This year’s DARE recipients produced meaningful work across all disciplines offered in LA&PS. Over the summer, each student played an integral role in coordinating projects that added valuable scholarly inquiry to the social sciences, humanities, and professional studies.

Each recipient was awarded $5,000 and paired with faculty members to explore urgent research subjects, including health care, work policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital data collection practices, issues impacting diaspora communities and more.

To commemorate the experiences from this year’s competition, LA&PS developed a virtual gallery showcasing each student and the DARE Project descriptions of the instructor-led research objectives.

“DARE is a wonderful opportunity to nurture mentorship and collaboration between instructors and students,” says Ravi de Costa, associate dean of Research & Graduate Studies. “This year’s research projects demonstrate the range and quality of the work taking place in LA&PS. Our faculty is dedicated to supporting creative and impactful work across all of our disciplines, and the DARE competition continues to expand on these efforts.”

For the award recipients, the projects serve as key stepping stones to future endeavours – whether in their respective fields beyond the university setting or continued academic research. Through their reflections, many of this year’s winners cited the unique hands-on experience as their favourite aspect of the process.

Fourth-year political science student, Kiana Therrien-Tomas, was pleased with the practical skills she acquired.

Looking back on the time spent working with Department of Politics Professor Simone Bohn on a project titled, “Collaborating with the state: a double-edged sword? The Brazilian Women’s Movement under the Workers’ Party administrations,” Therrien-Tomas explains, “this experience has been a great addition to my learning and professional development. It is an honour to receive this award. I can now proudly state that I have taken part in all stages of the research process, and apply the knowledge gained from this experience towards the completion of my undergraduate degree and my endeavours in law school.”

Fourth-year Disaster and Emergency Management student, Tiana Putric, echoed these positive sentiments when detailing the experience working with Department of Communication & Media Studies Professor Jonathan Obar on the DARE project, “The Future of Big Data: Understanding Digital Service Data Retention Policies and Implications for Online Privacy.”

“DARE was a transformative experience that left me with several new skills and insights,” said Putric. “I gained experience collecting, analyzing, and summarizing data retention policies and contracts from global digital service providers, learned how to evaluate policies against privacy laws and normative regulatory philosophies, and contributed to the data retention body of knowledge.”

In congratulating this year’s recipients, LA&PS Dean J.J. McMurtry was delighted to see how far the award has come.

“This competition offers an excellent opportunity for students to examine, discover, critique and create with leading researchers in their fields,” he said. “Over the past four years, DARE has exemplified the truly diverse and global scope of the research being done in LA&PS. Once again, our students have exceeded expectations.”

The 2021 DARE gallery can be viewed on the LA&PS website.

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