"This investment reaffirms Canada's commitment to advancing world-class research across a wide spectrum of disciplinary areas," said Ted Hewitt, chair, Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat Steering Committee; and president, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in a media release. "By supporting researchers and institutions across Canada, we're not only strengthening our research ecosystem, but also empowering the next generation of researchers to tackle the complex challenges of today and tomorrow."
"These chair renewals demonstrate the government's continued commitment to these important research topics, and we're extremely proud of our researchers," says Dr. William Ghali, vice-president (research).
To explore the breadth and depth of the research being done on our campuses, we asked the chairholders the following question: "What are you excited about in your second term as a CRC?"
Kerry Black
Dr. Kerry Black, PhD, Schulich School of Engineering
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in (Re)Engineering Sustainable Communities
"In my second term as a Canada Research Chair, I am most excited to continue championing community-led research and supporting the important work that partnering communities are stewarding. Over the past term, I have witnessed the power of collaborative, community-driven approaches to water sustainability and infrastructure development. These partnerships have not only advanced academic knowledge but have also fostered meaningful, reciprocal relationships. Moving forward, I am eager to deepen these collaborations, co-develop innovative solutions, and amplify the impact of community knowledge systems in shaping sustainable futures. This next chapter offers an opportunity to build on the momentum we've created, expand our network of engaged communities, and further embed equity, respect, and reconciliation into research practices. I am committed to ensuring that our work continues to reflect the priorities and aspirations of partnering communities, collaborating towards lasting, positive change."
Deinera Exner-Cortens
Dr. Deinera Exner-Cortens, PhD, Faculty of Arts
Canadian Institutes of Health Research Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Childhood Health Promotion
"The goal of my work is to enhance child and youth well-being through prevention and implementation science. In my second term as a Tier 2 CRC in Childhood Health Promotion, I am excited to continue to advance the work we are doing in my lab (the HOPELab) to promote adolescent healthy relationships, and prevent teen dating violence, bullying, and suicide. We will continue to engage with schools and community organizations across the country to co-create novel solutions to these challenges, and support implementation and evaluation of these efforts. Through my role as the Scientific Co-Director of PREVNet - Canada's national healthy youth relationships hub - I am excited to continue our work with policymakers to advocate for developmentally-informed changes to violence prevention legislation, our work with practitioners to understand what works, for whom, and in what contexts for youth violence prevention, and our work with national community and school partners to mobilize knowledge on bullying and teen dating violence to parents, caregivers, educators, and youth themselves. I am very lucky to collaborate with amazing trainees, as well as a wonderful network of colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally - it is truly a team effort!"
Dr. Exner-Cortens is also an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Social Work and holds a joint appointment with the Cumming School of Medicine's (CSM) Department of Psychiatry. She is a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, its Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research & Education, the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute and its Owerko Centre, and the O'Brien Institute for Public Health.
Kathleen Sitter
Dr. Kathleen Sitter, PhD, Faculty of Social Work
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Multisensory Storytelling in Research and Knowledge Translation
"In my second term, I'm thrilled to develop Sensing the Past, a national project mapping disability histories across Canada through sensory and creative storytelling. As a community-led initiative, people with disabilities are storytellers and decision-makers ensuring that lived experience remain at the centre. The project engages communities across Canada where we will launch an interactive online story map, a graphic novel, and a travelling sensory installation."
"Alongside this work, we are also convening a symposium that centers disabled people as global speakers, panelists, and co-design partners. The program blends community knowledge, scholarship, and creative practice, with activities ranging from sensorial storytelling co-created with playwrights, guided campus smellwalks, 4-dimensional storytelling technologies, museum co-design workshops that reimagine accessibility, and exploring therapeutic applications of digital storytelling. By focusing on co-design and lived expertise, this term aims to build inclusive spaces where innovation thrives through creativity, accessibility, and storytelling."
Dr. Sitter is a member of the Cumming School of Medicine's Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and the O'Brien Institute for Public Health.
Kimberly Lenters
Dr. Kimberly Lenters, PhD, Werklund School of Education
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Language and Literacy Education
"It has been an honour to have my first term as a Tier 2 CRC recognized in the form of the five-year renewal. In my first term, consideration of the role of play in first and second grade children's literacy learning was the dominant theme. This research, which considered human and more-than-human relationalities in learning spaces, extends in my second term to a project that has undergraduate students engaging in primary research. Noting the importance of storied play for literacy learning, the Playground Literacies project has started to map the storied play opportunities in Calgary's inner-city playgrounds. Next spring, it will move into its next stage: student researchers will be deployed to investigate the storied ways children intra-act with these playgrounds."
"I am perhaps most excited by a second aspect of my research program. The Literacy's Landscapes project involves settler and Indigenous literacy scholars from across Western and Central Canada. It aims to explicate a constellation of early learners' and their teachers' experiences with living literacies through sustained encounters with Canada's historied, urban geographies. Participants will engage in collaborative re/storying, enriching current knowledge of early literacies by re/generating educational models that more fully value lands and children. Ultimately, by elucidating and emphasizing existing relations across landscapes, children, and literacies, the study aims to serve as a catalyst for those concerned with nurturing children's literacies and social participation in schools and communities to deepen their own capacity to disrupt colonial constructs of land and challenge normative narratives of early literacies."
Susana Kimura-Hara
Dr. Susana Kimura-Hara, PhD, Faculty of Science
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Analytical and Aquatic Chemistry
"Nanobubbles are extremely tiny gas bubbles (~150 nanometers) that can stay in water for weeks and help dissolve gases more efficiently. Their surfaces are very reactive, which can enhance disinfecting and contaminant removal reactions. In my second term, I am most excited to make the use of ozone-filled nanobubbles in water treatment a reality! I'll study how these bubbles form and behave in different water conditions, how well they remove pollutants and kill harmful microbes, and how they reduce unwanted disinfection by-products. This work aims to make ozone nanobubbles a practical and sustainable way to clean and reuse water."
