Lakehead University is receiving over $750,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to support eight diverse projects that will advance our understanding of people, cultures, and societies.
Dr. Tocheri and many of his Indonesian and other international collaborators at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in July 2025.
Dr. Yuanyuan Wu and Dr. Olakunle Akingbola, professors in the Faculty of Business Administration at Lakehead's Orillia campus, are working with over 25 rural non-profit organizations in central Ontario to examine how financial and human resource limitations impact operations and non-profits' ability to support people in their communities.
"Improving the well-being of people in underserved and marginalized communities is particularly challenging in rural areas due to geographic location, a shrinking workforce, and the unique needs of each community," explained Dr. Wu.
Supported by a four-year, $65,689 Insight Grant, the research team will identify and understand current operational issues and explore solutions to improve the sector's innovative capabilities to address pressing social challenges.
In another project, law professors Monique Woolnough and Larissa Speak are studying the ethics and impacts of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law's Indigenous land-based learning curriculum. Lakehead University is the first law school in Canada to mandate this course requirement for all first-year students. The three-day Gaa-maada'ooniding - Anishinaabe for "the place where we share together" - Law Camp introduces students to Indigenous legal orders through ceremonies, art, and sharing circles led by Elders and Indigenous community members.
"Land-based learning spaces include both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, so we need to carefully study the ethics of using Indigenous land-based teaching methods in Canadian law schools to see if they truly have decolonial effects," Speak explained.
The team is receiving a two-year $67,540 Insight Development Grant for the study, the results of which will be valuable for universities, colleges, and schools that are implementing land-based learning as part of their curriculum.
On a global scale, Dr. Matt Tocheri, professor in the Department of Anthropology, is continuing his long-term archaeological fieldwork on the Indonesian island of Flores. Dr. Tocheri and an international team of collaborators are reconstructing the environmental, biological, and cultural contexts surrounding the disappearance of Homo floresiensis (the "hobbits" of human evolution) around 50,000 years ago and an indigenous population of modern humans (~3,000-4,000 years ago) to explain why these early human populations went extinct.
"Understanding what happened to human species and populations in the past helps us, the last humans standing, make more informed decisions as we face threats to our own existence like the recent global pandemic and current climate crisis," explained Dr. Tocheri, who is receiving a five-year Insight Grant of $360,000.
"We are grateful to SSHRC for supporting these projects that will help us navigate the complex challenges we collectively face as a society," said Dr. Langis Roy, Vice-President, Research and Innovation.
In 2024/25, Lakehead University received almost $2.8 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, including the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, research facilities, and research security.
Backgrounder : SSHRC Grants Report Summary
