OCAD University researchers have received $201,888 in funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's (SSHRC) Insight Grants and Insight Development grants to lead social impact research projects.
This funding supports projects that will advance knowledge in areas of the future of art and design education focused on caring; the arts as a catalyst to address anti-Black racism; and the preservation of electroacoustic music in an age of rapidly evolving technology.
Three more OCAD U researchers are collaborators on projects that received funding from the SSHRC Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants.
In addition, Professor Dr. Jutta Treviranus was a co-applicant on a major pan-Canadian project, which received close to $2.5 million in funding through the Partnership Grants competition, to address pressing questions of how AI will affect the quality of working lives of Canadians.
2024 SSHRC INSIGHT GRANTS
Assistant Professor Dr. Michelle Miller, principal investigator, Faculty of Arts and Science; Assistant Professor Dr. Lori Riva, co-applicant, Faculty of Arts and Science
Project: Caring Futures in Canadian Art and Design Education
Funding: $96,967
Caring Futures in Canadian Art and Design Education argues that using a lens of care can bring about the possibility of education that prioritizes relationality, belonging, justice and sustainability. How might art and design students and faculty envision futures rooted in care? How might relations, objects, spaces, processes and policies be better attuned to more of our future preferred worlds? If we collectively reimagine a new set of possibilities, what might we learn about how to approach change in education through a speculative engagement with care?
Fusing interdisciplinary theories of care in pedagogy and design with speculative research methods modelled on Critical Utopian Action Research and Feminist Participatory Action Research, this research program explores how speculatively engaging with care can help (re)shape institutions' priorities.
In a series of visioning sessions at Canadian art and design universities and programs - Alberta University of the Arts, Concordia, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, NSCAD University, OCAD U, and University of Toronto - participants will create a future university built upon the tenets of care. This project will generate imagined futures that can be used to reconceptualize critiques of the existing university.
Associate Professor Dr. Cindy Poremba, collaborator, Faculty of Arts and Science; Jane Tingley (York University) and Dr. Roberta Buiani (University of Toronto), principal investigators
Project: Being in Relation
Funding: $277,120
Being in Relation is a research-creation project at the intersection of art, science, technology and social and environmental justice that aims to explore the socio-techno-human-nonhuman ecologies that make up the world. This project will critically engage with new technologies while harnessing their potential to disrupt assumptions through multisensory experiences and new forms of storytelling. A central goal for the project is to destabilize technologies by developing ethical guidelines and recommendations that will be cultivated using inclusive, anti-extractivist and sustainable principles.
Adjunct Professor Dr. Nina Czegledy, collaborator; Dr. Joel Ong, principal investigator (York University)
Project: Memory Machines: emerging practices in environmental sensing and ecopoetics
Funding: $369,281
2025 SSHERC INSIGHT DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
Associate Professor Dr. Kathy Moscou, principal investigator, Faculty of Design; Assistant Professor Kestin Cornwall, co-applicant, Faculty of Design; and Associate Professor and Chair, Advertising, Angela Bains, collaborator, Faculty of Design
Project: I Dream a World: The Arts as a Catalyst for Social Change
Funding: $67,485
I Dream a World is an Afrofuturism initiative that will use speculative design and creative practices to imagine, design and construct a future without racism. Anti-Black racism is pervasive in Canada and the Caribbean and is a legacy of colonization and enslavement in the Americas.
Although most Caribbean nations gained political independence in the 20th century, the legacy of colonialism continues to shape the region's politics, economy, society, and cultural identity. Decolonization remains a highly relevant and ongoing process in Canada and the Caribbean.
The arts can act as a catalyst to motivate social change. The I Dream a World initiative is grounded in Afrofuturism: dreaming, re-imagining, deconstructing and reconstructing a world in which Black people exercise their agency and are leaders in this new future world.
OCAD U and University of the West Indies researchers will engage youth, aged 18 to 29, in a collaboration to explore ideas of social justice through multidisciplinary art storytelling as seen through the eyes of Black, Caribbean and African peoples; reveal hidden stories of peoples of the African diaspora living in Canada as a tool of resilience, reconciliation and empowerment; and build Black youth leadership and technical skills to contribute to the design of an equitable, inclusive environment.
Adjunct Professor Dr. Arlan Vriens, principal investigator, Faculty of Art
Project: Futureproofing: A New Methodology for Documenting Electroacoustic Compositions
Funding: $37,436
As new technology replaces old, musical compositions combining acoustic instruments with electronic interventions - electroacoustic music - frequently become unplayable by present-day musicians. The technology used in these works, from analogue technology of the 1960s to code for software discontinued in the 2010s, innately becomes rarer, less understood, and less reliable over time.
This problem continues today, with most electroacoustic music written today including little to no descriptive documentation which might otherwise enable those works' performance once the originally mandated technology is obsolete.
Futureproofing: A New Methodology for Documenting Electroacoustic Compositions will bring together researchers from OCAD U, the University of Toronto, and collaborators from the Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers. The research will investigate documentation-oriented solutions to these concerns of future performability, asking: what descriptive and documentary features do music performers need in a new electroacoustic score to ensure the work's performability after the originally mandated technology has become unavailable?
Associate Professor and Chair, Drawing and Painting JJ Lee, collaborator; Dr. Anton Lee, principal investigator (NSCAD University)
Project: Diasporic Camera and Photogenic Relations: The Visual Storytelling of East Asian Immigration in Halifax, 1880s-Present
Funding: $75,000
Diasporic Camera and Photogenic Relations will explore the role of photography in shaping and expressing the experiences of East Asian immigrants in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from the 1880s to the present. The project will focus on visual histories of Chinese Canadians, offering a case study of how photography has purposefully been used by diasporic communities to negotiate identity, build kinship, and foster a sense of belonging. In doing so, this research will contribute to a broader understanding of visual storytelling in the representation and preservation of immigrant histories and will inform future work that includes the stories of Korean and Japanese communities in the region.
The research program's primary objectives are to define the photographic consciousness of diasporic existence; examine the positionalities of immigrants of colour in a predominantly white settler society; identify key themes and examples in the visual narratives of immigrant experiences; articulate the specificity of Halifax as a destination of early Chinese immigration; create, preserve, and share historical photographic archives; develop a framework for future expansion to include Japanese and Korean immigration stories; and propose a multilateral approach to reconciliation efforts.
The research results will be disseminated through an exhibition, interview videos, a digital chapbook, an open-access journal article, a website, and research talks to be held across Canada.
2024 SSHRC PARTNERSHIP GRANT
Professor and Director, Inclusive Design Research Centre, Dr. Jutta Treviranus, co-applicant; Dr. Arif Jetha, principal investigator (University of Toronto); OCAD U is listed as a partner on this project
Project: PAIQ: Partnership for Artificial Intelligence and Quality of Working Lives and Worker Well-Being
Funding $2,499,192
The Canadian labour market is undergoing an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. AI's capacity to learn, adapt, and create outputs with increasing independence means that it can automate job tasks across a broad range of occupations, with the potential to substantially change the world of work. Despite this, we have limited understanding of how AI will affect working conditions and worker experiences - whether for better or for worse. We also lack information on the worker groups that may be most advantaged or disadvantaged by AI.
This partnership project aims to address pressing questions of how AI will affect the quality of working lives in Canada. Working within a pan-Canadian multidisciplinary team of 40 researchers and 34 partner organizations, this project will conduct a series of research studies to better understand what the increased use of AI in the workplace means for the well-being of Canadian workers.
Findings will be integrated into the design of applied resources to guide healthy and equitable AI adoption in the workplace. This project will also build capacity among early career researchers and partners to work at the intersection of AI, work and health.
