More than $9.3 million in new federal funding will support 42 91ÑÇÉ«-led research projects across the social sciences and humanities, including AI, health, equity and social change.
Awarded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's (SSHRC) Insight Grants program, the funding supports medium- and long-term research initiatives over four to six years.
The projects, led by 91ÑÇÉ« researchers across multiple Faculties and research units, address issues affecting communities in Canada and around the world with research topics that explore a range of issues with local, national and global significance.
"SSHRC Insight Grants enable researchers to pursue ambitious, long-term programs of inquiry that deepen understanding of complex social issues and generate knowledge with real-world relevance," says Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. "This year's funded projects demonstrate the remarkable breadth of 91ÑÇÉ«'s research strengths, spanning health and well-being, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, Indigenous knowledge and cultural resurgence, education, labour markets, environmental and climate challenges, social inclusion, governance and public policy. Together these projects will generate new insights that help inform policy, practice and public dialogue in Canada and around the world."
Among the largest grants is a six-year, $463,646 project led by Stephanie Ben-Ishai () examining the financial and psychological effects of insolvency. Ann Marie Murnaghan (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies) received $459,784 for a six-year project focused on cultural resurgence in Witsuwit'en territories, while Michael Kalu () received $456,501 for research examining the needs of Black older adults and developing Afrocentric-informed strategies.
Other significant awards include Andrea Emberly's (LA&PS) six-year study exploring community connection and musical arts among young people, funded at $435,379, and Shital Desai's () six-year, $417,127 project investigating approaches to strengthening communication and relationships in dementia care. Enakshi Dua (LA&PS) received $411,890 for a five-year project that explores the changing landscape of diversity, equity, inclusion and decolonization initiatives.
Several funded projects examine the social implications of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Christo El Morr (Faculty of Health) received $396,562 for Mapping Workplace Racism in Canada: A Community-Driven AI Platform Grounded in Ontario, while sava saheli singh's (LA&PS) Machine Learning or Learning Machines: Critical AI Futures in Education received $111,678. Isha Sharma (LA&PS) received $123,659 to study the adoption and impact of agentic AI in financial crime compliance.
Health and social well-being are also prominent themes. Mary Fox (Faculty of Health) received $400,708 to develop an e-learning intervention aimed at disrupting ageism in social work education, while Nazilla Khanlou's (Faculty of Health) $390,389 project will examine supports for racialized families of children and youth with developmental disabilities. Kerry Scott (Faculty of Health) received $286,282 to investigate public trust and engagement with Ontario's health system.
Other projects, listed below, explore immigrant inequality, labour market barriers, disability and education policy, climate and energy transitions, Indigenous resurgence, entrepreneurship in the age of AI, anti-human trafficking and cultural heritage, and more, reflecting the breadth of 91ÑÇÉ«'s research strengths.
Russ Patrick P. Alcedo, AMPD
Project: From Field to Stage: Choreographing for Theatre Philippine Folk Dance Practices through Ethnographic Research
Funding: $163,951
Lalaie Ameeriar, LA&PS
Project: We Inherit Each Other: Racialized Care Work and Reproductive Labour during and after COVID-19
Funding: $109,580
Ilya Archakov,
Project: Measuring and Modeling Economic Correlations: Robust, Valid, and Large-Scale
Funding: $59,770
Godfred O. Boateng, Faculty of Health
Project: A Cross-Cultural Validation of Housing Insecurity Scale in Slums and Informal Settlements
Funding: $362,992
Rebecca Caines, AMPD
Project: Interfacing, Playtesting, Resetting: Reframing Technology Use Through Improvised Creative Technologies
Funding: $118,750
Barnali Choudhury, Osgoode Hall Law School
Project: Improving Modern Slavery Reporting in Canada: Legal Ripple Effects and Insights from Australia
Funding: $185,789
Elicia A. Clements, AMPD
Project: Interventions in Early Twentieth-Century Opera: Gender, Race, Coloniality
Funding: $104,553
Matias Cortes, LA&PS
Project: The Role of Firms in Lifecycle Earnings Growth and Inequality
Funding: $109,052
David B. Goldstein, LA&PS
Project: Imagined Tables: Eating and the Articulation of Community
Funding: $111,875
Luann M. Good Gingrich, LA&PS
Project: Places and Spaces of Social Inclusion: A Contextual Analysis of Immigrant Inequality in Canada
Funding: $254,831
Philip A. Harland, LA&PS
Project: Criminalization of Minorities and Subject Peoples in Antiquity
Funding: $116,231
Robert J. Heynen, LA&PS
Project: Mediations of Anti-Human Trafficking: Technology, Securitization, and Policing at the Border
Funding: $218,627
Alice J. Hovorka,
Project: Animal Performativity: ‘Becoming Primate’ in Human Society
Funding: $207,650
Hong Kal, AMPD
Project: Grievable Images: Visualizing State Violence and Resistance in South Korea Since 1948
Funding: $115,556
Magdalena J. Kazubowski-Houston, AMPD
Project: Performing Eco-Grief: Youth, Theatre, and Climate Mourning in Canada and Poland
Funding: $217,657
Étienne Lalé, LA&PS
Project: Foot Traffic, Consumer Spending, and Employment: New Insights from Cell Phone Data
Funding: $105,346
Margaret E. MacDonald, LA&PS
Project: Governing Reproduction in Senegal: Discourses and Images in the Postcolonial Archive
Funding: $105,490
Raymond A. Mar, Faculty of Health
Project: Learning Social Content from Stories
Funding: $124,843
Yuka Nakamura, Faculty of Health
Project: Community and Connection: Understanding the Growth and Social Impact of Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Sport Organizations in Toronto
Funding: $172,229
Lilian K. Ng, Schulich School of Business
Project: Giving Where They Operate: Biodiversity Governance and Corporate Philanthropy
Funding: $161,035
Ken Ogata, Schulich School of Business
Project: Legitimacy and the Hierarchy of Artefacts Along the Entrepreneurial Journey: Evidence from the Introduction of Third-Party Certification Agencies into the Collectible Comic Books Industry
Funding: $101,646
Nathanael Ojong, LA&PS
Project: Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals in the Age of AI
Funding: $286,219
Salewa Olawoye, LA&PS
Project: Towards An Inclusive Monetary Theory: African Entrepreneurship and Money Creation
Funding: $124,927
Oyemolade Osibodu, Faculty of Education
Project: Navigating Blackness: Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Parents' and Youth's Perspectives on the Racialization of Mathematics Education
Funding: $106,237
Gillian Parekh, Faculty of Education
Project: Constructing Disability in Education: Disability Identity, Policy Enactment and Academic Outcomes
Funding: $342,757
Jennifer R. Pybus, LA&PS
Project: Extracting Intimacy: FemTech, Surveillance, and Sovereignty
Funding: $98,892
Amanda Ricci, LA&PS
Project: At the Heart of the City: A History of the Garment Industry in Montreal, 1930–1990
Funding: $81,855
Perry Sadorsky, Schulich School of Business
Project: Energy Transition Systemic Risk in Times of Uncertainty
Funding: $109,082
Akolisa Ufodike, LA&PS
Project: Gatekeeping Growth: Immigration, Credentialing, and the Hidden Drivers of Canada's Productivity Decline
Funding: $375,300
Daniel J. Wigfield, Faculty of Health
Project: Systemic Integrity: Institutional Logics and Misconduct in Federated Sport Governance
Funding: $242,431
91ÑÇÉ« researchers are also directly involved as co-applicants for 15 other projects awarded a total of $3.85 million. See the of projects and recipients.