The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has announced Public Outreach Grants for two Carleton University researchers. Geography Professor Fraser Taylor and Communications Professor André Turcotte have been awarded grants for their research projects. In total, Taylor will receive $97,683, while Turcotte will receive $70,000.
More than $6 million has been awarded under SSHRC’s Connection program to 95 public outreach research projects. The projects involve Canadian and international researchers covering a wide range of topics such as history, education and First Nations communities. Through these grants, SSHRC encourages researchers to find effective ways to disseminate, transfer, exchange and synthesize research results to wider audiences such as policy-makers, organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, students at all levels and the general public.
“Knowledge sharing among multi-sectoral partners is essential to innovation and to building the expertise needed for Canada’s future,” said Dr. Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC. “These Public Outreach Grants enable the flow and exchange of knowledge across campuses and the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, which, in turn, produces benefits for Canadians.”
Here are the details of the two funded projects:
André Turcotte
Democracy Talks Initiative: Understanding Canadians’ Views on Politics and Democracy
With fewer people voting and political engagement of all kinds decreasing, Turcotte, in partnership with the non-profit research organization Samara, will work to find out why. The SSHRC funding will enable the team to reach out to the Canadian public and community organizations to develop an annual ‘Democracy Index’ to measure the performance of key components of the political system. They will seek to examine what is and what is not working in our political system and, through public outreach, will engage the Canadian public in a dialogue about their democracy.
Fraser Taylor
Public participation in a voluntary geographic information environment – The Cybercartographic Atlas of the Lake Huron Treaty
This outreach project will create an atlas as a reconciliation tool that will host a broad range of remote community contributions, mobilizing knowledge at the intersection of aboriginal research and the digital economy. It will involve the collaborative creation of a collection of online interactive multimedia maps with input from a diverse range of contributors that include members from several Anishinaabe communities and others interested in enhancing awareness of indigenous perspectives and exposing the assumptions implicit in western views, most notably the relationship between legal and regulatory institutions and people, their lives and experiences.
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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca
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