Advancing Faculty Research

Advancing Faculty Research Through SSHRC Grants

In fall 2023, several King’s faculty were awarded Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants totalling over $1.2 million. These grants allow faculty to collaborate with colleagues and experts across Canada to advance their research.

Dr. Thomas Tieku, Professor of Politics and International Relations, is co-director of an SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, “Empowering Black Youth in Southwestern Ontario: A Collaborative Project Exploring How Black Youth in Southwestern Ontario Negotiate their Multiple Marginalities.” The research team will document, analyze, and co-create strategies to alleviate the systemic and racial inequalities faced by Black youth in the under-documented areas of London-Middlesex, Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent, and Windsor-Essex.

Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Professor Emerita cross-appointed to Childhood and Youth Studies (CYS) and the School of Social Work, is a co-recipient of an SSHRC grant for a collaborative study on “Responding to Challenging Times: An Inflection Point for Family Justice in Ontario.” The five-year study will investigate recent changes to the Divorce Act, the Children’s Law Reform Act, and the intersection of family violence and high-conflict families involved in parental separation.

Dr. Joseph Michalski, Professor of Sociology, will direct a multi-disciplinary team of experts on a collaborative study on sibling conflict. “The Canadian National Study of Adolescent Sibling Conflict, Aggression, and Bullying” will look at all types of sibling conflict – from everyday disagreements to more severe acts of aggression.

The team will look to describe and explain the main conflict resolution strategies that siblings tend to use with each other during adolescence and examine different risk factors that may lead to more extreme forms of physical aggression and bullying.

Sociology professors Dr. Liam Kennedy and Dr. Derek Silva received an SSHRC Insight Grant for a collaborative research study on “Policing and Post-Pandemic Participation in Sport and Physical Activity.” The study will examine how sports activities and places like gyms, golf courses, basketball courts and soccer fields, were experienced, politicized, and regulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the central goal of understanding the barriers and challenges to post-pandemic participation in recreational sport, particularly for criminalized, marginalized, and underrepresented groups.

Dr. Lesley Bikos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, and Dr. Jeffrey Preston, Associate Professor of Disability Studies, are co-recipients of an SSHRC Insight Grant, “Modelling Permanent Supportive Housing into Canada’s Housing and Homelessness System,” which aims to drive both policy and practice in order to save lives. The research team hopes to answer five critical questions, including what is and is not working in rehousing those with highest need and how is supportive housing best delivered.