Faculty of Arts
Interim Dean: Joël Dickinson, PhD
RESEARCH MAKING AN IMPACT TODAY
Drs. Sheila Coté-Meek, Taima Moeke Pickering and Hoi Cheu collaborated with Dr. Janet McElhaney from Health Sciences North Research Institute, community Indigenous Scholar Elder Betty McKenna, and filmmaker Darlene Naponse on Digital Storytelling, a digital media production project funded by AGE-Well. The project seeks to improve dementia care for Indigenous people, with dementia rates reported to be 34% higher in Indigenous compared to non-Indigenous people due to health inequities.
Driven by Indigenous communities and aligning with Indigenous ways of knowing, the project facilitates knowledge-sharing around common caregiver experiences and patterns through storytelling.
Digital Storytelling is being integrated into training sessions for caregivers and as tools to promote community-driven models to address the emerging health issues related to dementia diagnoses for Indigenous peoples in Canada.
The creative writing of the Theatre Program’s Associate Professor Alain Doom is consistent with a keen interest in “memorable theatre.”
In his play Un neurinome sur une balançoire, published by Éditions Prise de parole in 2015, he explored memorial space through a self that is defined by illness and an encounter with a poet.
This play was recently adapted into a web series by TV5 Monde under the title Neurinome, and is now available to watch at unis.ca/neurinome.
In 2018, Prof. Doom’s play Un quai entre deux mondes was published by Éditions Prise de parole. In this play, he explores how a lack of roots allows the memory to be revisited more easily as a form of baggage that transcends space. In his new play, Le Club des Éphémères, he tackles the rejection of mythified stories that nevertheless shape our memory, drawing on the history of the Dionne Quintuplets, whose physical or memorial traces are slowly disappearing.
This “research-creation” will be published in 2019.
Dr. Cynthia Whissell’s book entitled Emotion and Plot in the Premodern English-Language Novel was published in 2018 by Common Ground Research Networks.
The book is the result of several years of research on the topic of emotion in literature and of 20 months of work, from conception to writing, acceptance, editing (by Mary Ann Carswell) and publication.
Inspired by a list of “100 Best” English-language novels published in The Guardian newspaper, Dr. Whissell studied the underlying structure of 39 English novels published before 1914 and used quantitative methods to analyze the emotional implications of their words.
Targeted at an Interdisciplinary Humanities audience, the book should also be of interest to those seeking to understand literature from another perspective.
This is Dr. Whissell’s third book, having published over 100 articles, mainly in the area of emotion and language. This summer, she will present a paper on the plot structure of The Iliad and The Odyssey at a conference in Greece.
Dr. Whissell is a full professor and chairperson for the Department of Psychology.
Dr. Serge Miville was highly sought after by the provincial and national media in November 2018, following the political crisis that mobilized a significant portion of civil society in French-speaking Ontario and put the spotlight on the province’s Francophone community.
The involvement of the Assistant Professor and Franco-Ontarian History Research Chair in the debate has brought Laurentian’s research in the humanities and the arts to the forefront.
Drawing on his research, particularly on the Sturgeon Falls school crisis (SSHRC Insight- Development 2018-2020) and the Hôpital Montfort crisis (1997-2002), he has written and co-authored numerous letters in the Globe and Mail, Le Devoir, and Le Droit, and has appeared on The Agenda, TVO, Médium Large and Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on dit on the national networks of Radio-Canada and the CBC.
This mobilization of knowledge has helped to inform public debate on the future of French-speaking Ontario, as well as on popular education, the democratization of knowledge and the development of public governance policies.
Faculty of Education
Dean: Lace Marie Brogden, PhD
ENGAGEMENT IN EDUCATION
Building Capacity for French Immersion Science Teachers
Drs. Ginette Roberge and Yovita Gwekwerere received a grant of $300,000 from the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) to conduct research, develop teaching resources, and offer professional development workshops for French Immersion science teachers across the province.
The two researchers bring unique experiences that have strengthened this collaboration. Dr. Roberge, Associate Professor, teaches French, English and science at the École des sciences de l’éducation, and also has experience teaching French as a second language in elementary schools. Dr. Gwekwerere, Associate Professor, teaches science education courses to pre-service teachers in the English School of Education and has experience teaching middle school science.
Dr. Roberge’s research focuses on second language teaching and learning, as well as bullying prevention and intervention strategies in schools. Dr. Gwekwerere is part of an international research team investigating middle school and high school students’ understandings of scientific inquiry – the main focus of her work – across five continents.
The researchers’ project, entitled “Building Capacity for French Immersion Science Teachers,” was developed in response to French Immersion teachers’ concerns about the additional challenge of teaching scientific concepts to second language learners whose second language competencies may be varied or limited.
A common challenge in French Immersion science classrooms in Ontario is that existing resources are generally designed for first language teachers and therefore do not take into account the pedagogical implications of second language teaching approaches, namely teaching complex scientific concepts in what is a second language for most learners.
In July 2017, representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Education approached Laurentian University to discuss a project that would strive to build capacity for these teachers. In February 2018, Laurentian signed agreements with CODE and Science North.
Laurentian researchers were tasked with conducting research and then developing teaching resources informed by research, while Science North was subcontracted by the researchers to develop and conduct science workshops for French Immersion science teachers.
The research project focused on gaining an understanding of teachers’ and students’ perceptions about French Immersion science teaching and learning. The project is ongoing. So far, the collaboration has provided professional development workshops to 37 grade 7-10 science teachers, as well as research training opportunities for two Laurentian University students working as research assistants.
This project demonstrates the recognition of Laurentian University as a bilingual university which offers unique talents that are essential for the promotion of Canada’s two official languages.
Faculty of Graduate Studies
Dean: David Lesbarrères, PhD
2018 ACHIEVEMENTS
So many awards and scholarships!
What a great year for our graduate students, with more than 72 publications, 127 presentations, and over 150 scholarships awarded across all disciplines. Here’s a glimpse of some of the most prestigious prizes:
- 2 Ontario Trillium Scholarships for international PhD students: Farhad Abassi Amiri (Natural Resources Engineering), and Maryam Parashkouhi (Natural Resources Engineering)
- Grace Scott was awarded the CIHR Doctoral Scholarship, and Thierry Middleton was the recipient of the SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship.
- 8 Canadian Graduate Scholarships: Valerie Gauthier (Sociologie), Anik Dennie (Human Kinetics), Desiree Quenneville (Human Kinetics), Dominika Pakula (Psychology), Kelsey Lapointe (Orthophonie), Adam Kirkwood (Biology), Damiano Bartolotto (Chemical Sciences), Laura Williams (Biology)
- 31 Ontario Graduate Scholarships
Want more?
- Jasmine Veitch (Biology) represented Laurentian University at the Ontario Universities 3MT provincial competition.
- Kelly Harding (Rural and Northern Health) was awarded the Governor General Gold Medal.
- Krystel Clark (Architecture) was selected to act as a cultural host at the Canadian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale in Italy.
So far away!
- Adam Kirkwood (Biology) presented at the European Conference on Permafrost in Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France and at the Geophysical Union 2018 Fall Meeting in Washington D.C., USA.
- Ibrahim Berrada (Human Studies) presented at the Mid-Atlantic-New England Council for Canadian Studies in Lake Placid, NY, at the Association of Canadian Studies in Waterford, Ireland, and at the British Association for Canadian Studies Conference in London, England.
- Mandy Scott (Human Studies) presented at the Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference in Tucson, Arizona.
- All Architecture students travelled to one of the following for research/study trips: Helsinki, Copenhagen, Moose Factory, Albuquerque, New York City, Northern Quebec.
- Stéphanie Beaulieu, Émilie Bouchard-Moore, Catherine Contant, Alyshia Kiernan, Kelsey Lapointe, and Joannie Morris (Orthophonie) presented at the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Congress in Gold Coast, Australia.
- Corey Caporicci and Melodie Serre (Orthophonie) presented at the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association Convention in Boston, MA.
- Carly Stransky (Biology) presented her thesis at a conference in Russia and spent part of her summer in the Arctic placing trackers on endangered species for conservation and finding mammoth remains for research on mammoth era flora and fauna.
Congratulations to all of our graduate students on these outstanding achievements!
Faculty of Health
Interim Dean: Céline Larivière, PhD
ENHANCING HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF COMMUNITIES NEAR AND FAR THROUGH RESEARCH
The Faculty of Health’s research productivity is diverse and covers a variety of disciplines and thematic areas that were front and centre at the 10th Annual Faculty of Health Conference held on December 5th, 2018. This year’s conference featured over 15 posters, over 30 oral presentations, a three-minute thesis competition, a grant-writing panel discussion, an Indigenous scholarship showcase organized by the School of Indigenous Relations, and featured Dana Wilson from Public Health Sudbury and District who gave a compelling talk on the topic of health equity.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, researchers from the Faculty of Health have
published 23 books and book chapters, 117 peer-reviewed articles and over 300 conference proceedings or research reports. Individual researchers, research centres and laboratories received a combined total of $19,521,840 in research funding.
Among the books published by our faculty are Les pratiques en maison d’hébergement pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale : 40 ans d’histoire by Isabelle Côté, Facilitating Mindfulness: A Guide for Human Service Professionals by Diana Coholic, and La pensée critique expliquée par des didacticiennes et des didacticiens de l’enseignement supérieur by Georges Kpazaï.
Select research grants awarded
- Isabelle Côté from the School of Social Work and colleagues were awarded an SSHRC grant ($50,855) for “Développement d’outils méthodologiques et pratiques pour évaluer les pratiques d’intervention axées sur la sécurité et la reprise du pouvoir des femmes victimes de violence conjugale.”
- Elizabeth Carlson from the School of Social Work and colleagues were awarded a SSHRC Connection Grant ($49,980) for “Stories of Decolonization Film Project: Identities and Contemporary Colonization.”
- Lea Tufford from the School of Social Work and colleagues (including Elizabeth Wenghofer from the School of Rural and Northern Health) received a SSHRC Insight Grant ($120,824) for “Evaluating decision-making and relationship competence when reporting suspected child abuse and neglect.”
- Roxanne Bélanger, Chantal Mayer-Crittenden and Michèle Minor-Corriveau from the School of Speech-Language Pathology received a SSHRC Insight grant ($99,499) titled
- “The early identification of children at risk of developing language disorders using validated parent questionnaires: a partnered approach to childhood well-being.”
- Birgit Pianosi from the Department of Gerontology at Huntington University and John Lewko from the School of Rural and Northern Health received a grant from the North-East Specialized Geriatric Centre, Seniors’ Care Network ($50,000) for “Compendium of Educational Offerings Relevant to Interprofessional Comprehensi Geriatric Assessment.”
- Dominique Gagnon from the School of Human Kinetics received an NOHFC Internship Grant ($31,500; 2018-2019) to help support his research program focused on human thermoregulation and metabolism.
Other Research news
Manon Robillard and Pascal Lefebvre, both from the School of Speech-Language Pathology, as well as 5 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students attended the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication conference in Gold Coast, Australia in July 2018 where they presented four posters.
Tammy Eger (Research Chair in Occupational Health and Safety) from the School of Human Kinetics is one of four Canadian women to have been selected to participate in the prestigious 12-month Homeward Bound Leadership development program in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, which culminates with an expedition to Antarctica.
The 2017-2018 Faculty of Health Excellence in Research Award was given to Sandra Dorman from the School of Human Kinetics.
Faculty of Management
Interim Dean: Bernadette Schell, PhD
BUILDING RESEARCH COMMUNITIES GLOBALLY
The Research Centre for Operations and Decision Sciences (RCODS)* was created on September 21, 2018, by a group of Operations Management faculty members (namely, Dr. Mohamed Dia who was appointed Executive Director of the Centre, and Drs. Amirmohsen Golmohammadi, Shashi K. Shahi, Pawoumodom M. Takouda, and Luckny Zéphyr) from the Department of Finance and Operations. Both the Faculty of Management and the Department of Finance and Operations Councils have endorsed the creation of the RCODS.
The RCODS aims to foster multidisciplinary research in the areas of operations management, decision sciences, and related fields (e.g. analytics, data mining, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, renewable energy, sustainability), and in other disciplines such as management information systems, accounting, finance, engineering, economics, health administration, management of natural resources (mining, forestry, fisheries, renewable energy), behavioural sciences, and public administration. The Centre, in line with the Laurentian University 2018-2023 Strategic Plan, will encourage research in the areas mentioned above, increase opportunities for research funding, assist with faculty attraction and retention, provide opportunities for graduate education, and promote and support opportunities for international accreditations (EPAS, AACSB) in the Faculty of Management.
Two thousand eighteen was a successful year for the RCODS members and for the Faculty of Management at Laurentian University, with professors attending conferences, collaborating with researchers around the world, and obtaining prestigious awards. Dr. Dia was a member of the Scientific Committee and a track chair for the 2018 International Conference of the African Federation of Operational Research Societies (AFROS 2018) held in Tunis (Tunisia), July 2-4, 2018, where he also presented two communications. Dr. Takouda presented two communications at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) 2018 Conference in Toronto, May 27-29, 2018. One of the papers won the Best Paper Award. Titled “Reliability Effort Management in a Decentralized Assembly System,” by Golmohammadi, A., A. Tajbakhsh, M. Dia, and P.M. Takouda, the winning paper was chosen among dozens of other high quality submissions to the Production and Operations Management Division of ASAC 2018.
In December 2018, as part of a team featuring a PhD student whom he co-supervises in Colombia, Dr. Luckny Zéphyr won the First Prize AMBAR 2018-Research and Development of the Colombian Energy Sector (Research Category) of the Association of Colombian Distributors of Electrical Energy. The winning paper is titled “MAEP: A Mild- and Long-Term Tool for Hydro-Thermal Power Systems,” and the open-source software (MAEP) is currently used by a private company in Columbia. Dr. Golmohammadi presented a communication at the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) 2018 Conference in Halifax on June 4-6, 2018. Dr. Shahi was instrumental in developing research collaborations with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. In addition, during the year 2018, the RCODS members produced numerous papers in top-tier peer-reviewed journals.
* pending Senate approval
Faculty of Medicine
Dean: Roger Strasser, MD, Northern Ontario School of Medicine
INNOVATIVE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOR A HEALTHIER NORTH
Rooted in the North – The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is rooted in the North. We owe our progress in making Northern Ontario a healthier place to the many people and communities who have embraced our learners, supported NOSM, and advocated for improved health services in the region.
Research at NOSM is reflective of those roots. The work of NOSM researchers plays a key role in fulfilling the School’s mandate to be socially accountable to the diverse cultures of Northern Ontario, tackling important questions about the issues that affect people in the North. Research by our faculty and learners covers a breadth of topics in clinical, community and population health, biomedical sciences, environmental health, health education and health services.
Northern Health Research Conference
NOSM’s Northern Health Research Conference (NHRC) has been held annually since 2006. The School’s 13th annual Northern Health Research Conference was held in Kenora, directly following the School’s Indigenous Community Partnership Gathering hosted by Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation.
As this was the last NHRC Dr. Roger Strasser will attend in his role as Dean and CEO of NOSM, it was announced that the School has created a research award in his name which will provide financial support for a learner to present at each future conference.
Indigenous health research
NOSM learners and researchers continue to develop collaborative, participative and meaningful approaches to community-based research, and are working to answer questions that will have a positive impact on Indigenous communities in a respectful way.
Dr. Lorrilee McGregor, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Health, joined NOSM in the spring of 2018. Since 2002, Dr. McGregor has been a member of the Manitoulin Anishinabek Research Review Committee MARRC, a community research ethics board, and has served as the chair since 2004. She is the School’s first full-time Indigenous faculty member. Dr. McGregor organized a research conference on February 1-2, 2019, to highlight research projects that have been reviewed and approved by MARRC over the years.
Dr. Marion Maar, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology at NOSM, together with First Nations communities of Manitoulin Island and Laurentian University Master of Indigenous relations graduate, Beaudin Bennett, created Noojamadaa, an educational photo exhibit exploring healthy relationships in First Nations families and communities. The goals of the project include understanding the context of intimate partner violence, the role of primary care practitioners in addressing violence their patients experience at home, and what kind of training and resources they need to better fulfill that role.
Dr. Marina Ulanova, Professor of Medical Sciences, has been studying Haemophilus influenzae infection for the entirety of her 13 years as a faculty member at NOSM. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Ulanova and her team have made numerous significant discoveries about HiA, including its prevalence in Northwestern Ontario and in Indigenous versus non-Indigenous populations in the region, as well as about natural immune defences against this infection.
Working better together
A group of NOSM researchers, led by Dr. Tara Baldisera, Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences, are following both male and female athletes from multiple varsity teams at Laurentian University, studying the effectiveness of interprofessional concussion management teams in diagnosing and treating injuries from both return-to-play and return-to-learn perspectives.
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Architecture
Dean: Osman Abou-Rabia, PhD
ENGAGED RESEARCH
In May 2018, 160 grade four to six students from RL Beattie Primary School danced a DNA replication of a bacterial chromosome. The event was part of NSERC Science Odyssey, a national week of science outreach. Under the direction of science teacher, Emilia Corsi and Dr. Thomas Merritt, Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Bioinfomatics, the students interpreted the replication of a circular bacterial chromosome in a swirling 10-minute dance of colour.
Kindergarten teacher Alyssa Julien choreographed the piece, and a student band played an original composition in four notes, one for each base in the DNA code, composed by music teacher Colette Nadeau. The students spun and circled as one looping chromosome became two and created an amazing multidisciplinary piece of art that put the whole concept of genetics
in a different light.
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The Huron-Wendat Nation and Laurentian researcher Dr. Alicia Hawkins have teamed up to explore a question central to Huron-Wendat understandings of their history. In a SSHRC-funded project conceived of and co-designed with the Nation, the research team is investigating why Huron-Wendat oral traditions indicate a strong connection with the St. Lawrence Valley, while traditionally archaeologists have not recognized this. The team employs the idea of “community of practice,” in which artisans who learn from one another share gestures and ideas of how to make something, possibly without even being aware of this. If Huron-Wendat ancestors made pots in eastern Canada, as well as in what is now southern Ontario, this should be observable in the selection of clays, in the “recipes” for preparing clay, and in the gestures they used to form the pots. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (by Dr. J. Petrus at the Harquail School of Earth Sciences, Laurentian University), ceramic petrography (by Dr. G. Braun at University of Toronto) and micro-computed tomography (by A. St. John at Western University) are three of the methods employed to see beyond decoration and to explore possible “common recipes” of Indigenous potters over five hundred years ago.
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In October 2018, Dr. Émilie Pinard, Assistant Professor at the McEwen School of Architecture, and ten students from the program, travelled to Sept-Îles through an SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant to support the Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-Utenam (ITUM) Band Council in developing a project to build a transmission centre of Innu culture for youth. The team met with government officials and cultural specialists, participated in educational workshops, and visited existing transmission camps of Innu culture with elementary school elders and directors. These activities made it possible to identify and prioritize the qualities required for the future centre and to make an inventory of preferred construction practices. The students then produced concrete proposals, in the form of architectural drawings, as a means of translating, sharing and validating the visions expressed. These were presented to the partners at meetings in Sudbury in November and Quebec City in December, and the results will be shared in a printed publication and on a website accessible to the communities in the coming months
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In November 2018, the inaugural Canadian Science Meets Parliament event was held at Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Organized by the Canadian Science Policy Centre in partnership with Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer, Science Meets Parliament brought researchers and parliamentarians together to start a dialogue. Laurentian University’s Dr. Albrecht Schulte- Hostedde, Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Applied Evolutionary Ecology, was one of 29 Tier II CRCs selected from across the country to participate in this initiative. Researchers from a variety of disciplines were in attendance.
Dr. Schulte-Hostedde participated in a workshop on how to communicate with policymakers and met with Conservative MPs, Jim Eglinski and Colin Carrie, and the head of the Green Party, Elizabeth May. A key lesson Dr. Schulte-Hostedde took away from this experience was on how to communicate ideas to politicians and policymakers: start with the take-home message and explain how you got there, rather than starting with a theoretical foundation and building up evidence to a crescendo. The CRCs who attended the inaugural Science Meets Parliament are now working on a paper documenting their experiences at the event.
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These articles are republished from Laurentian University’s Research Magazine The Key 2019.
