Seven Arts researchers secure SSHRC Funding
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Grants support social sciences and humanities research that explores issues related to individuals and societies, aiming to enhance collective understanding. Seven Arts researchers have been awarded grants: four have received the SSHRC Insight Grant (external link) to support their long-term projects, and three have received the SSHRC Insight Development Grant (external link) , which supports early-stage and short-term research.
SSHRC Insight Grants
Bryan Evans - Who is Heard? Business and Public Interest Lobbying in Canada
As a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Bryan Evans’ research interest in corporate lobbying and public interest advocacy stemmed from his engagement with business lobbyists and social-economic policy advocates.
“The awarding of this grant means that I and my co-applicants can really invest in shining some light on a murky dimension of public policy making and influencing,” said Evans, “a key theme is the hugely unequal distribution of power resources in Canada and how this structurally enables Corporate Canada and beyond to shape how our governments frame policy issues. Conversely, more public interest-oriented non-governmental organizations simply don't have that kind of capacity and political networks.”
The SSHRC Insight Grant will support a diverse array of research projects that address various lobbying-related topics Evans will be investigating. These include examining the influence of the oil and gas lobby on Canadian energy policies, identifying lobbyists who meet with federal and provincial governments and the issues they address, analyzing the private sector housing lobby's impact on housing policy, evaluating lobbying regulations across Canada and exploring potential improvements, and studying how public interest advocacy groups mobilize around issues like fair taxation, public health care, and labour law reform. Evans expects outputs to begin in the Spring/Summer of 2025.
Laura Fisher - Girl on the Line: Sex Work, Suffrage, and Life Writing in Circulation, 1911-1930
Laura Fisher, a professor in the Department of English, published her first book, Reading for Reform: The Social Life of Literature in the Progressive Era, with the University of Minnesota Press in 2019. Her research focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century US literature, social reform and recovering overlooked literary texts. Fisher is currently writing a new book, Girl on the Line, which explores how a forgotten 1913 memoir by a San Francisco sex worker impacted various social movements, including suffrage and evangelicalism. Fisher has also published cultural criticism on such topics as riot grrrl, popular music and culture, and contemporary literature for publications such as The Guardian, The New Inquiry, Avidly—Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books.
Girl on the Line reveals how an unpublished memoir became a key tool in the Progressive Era's debates over female sexuality, used by various social movements. Fisher plans to publish a fully annotated, uncensored version of the memoir. Her research involves reconstructing the fragmented story through letters, diaries, and archival materials not available digitally. The SSHRC Insight Grant will fund this research across US archives and support sharing the findings in Canada and beyond. The fund will also support the training of graduate research assistants in Toronto. Mentoring future researchers is a huge priority for Fisher, “I am extremely grateful to have received an SSHRC Insight Grant. I am also very excited that this grant will enable me to train and create professional development opportunities for graduate students.”
Jeta Mulaj - Stable Justice
Jeta Mulaj is a professor in the Department of Philosophy. She specializes in social and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and critical theory, with a research focus on emancipation, capitalism, gender and sexuality, decolonial theory and the Balkans. In addition to her research and teaching, she is also the co-founder and executive director of the Balkan Society for Theory and Practice (external link) and a research associate for the Society for Women of Ideas. (external link)
“Receiving the SSHRC Insight Grant is a tremendous honour that will enable me to deepen my research and help cultivate a collaborative academic community focused on questions of social justice,” explains Mulaj, “overall, this grant will not only enhance the quality and reach of my work but also cultivate a vibrant academic community engaged in the critical themes explored in my book.”
This grant will enable Mulaj to complete her book, which contributes a novel concept of stability and its importance for justice, as well as a series of related articles. It will also allow her to share the research both nationally and internationally and to host a series of workshops and events at TMU. Additionally, the grant will facilitate student involvement in the project, providing hands-on research experience that enhances their education and promotes a collaborative research environment.
Nima Naghibi and Amin Moghadam - Tehranto: Stories of Home and Belonging from Toronto’s Iranian Diaspora
Nima Naghibi, a professor in the English Department, focuses her research and scholarship on diasporic Iranian women’s life narratives and the intersection of Western and Iranian feminisms in the 20th century. Amin Moghadam is a Research Lead at the CERC in Migration and Integration. His research explores connections between Homeownership experiences and diaspora politics focusing on the Iranian diaspora in Toronto. Moghadam is the co-principal investigator on the Tehranto project.
The SSHRC Insight Grant will make it possible for Naghibi and Moghadam’s goal to record and digitize the life narratives of the Iranian community in Toronto. This grant allows them to utilize creative and innovative research methods in collecting the diverse life stories of Iranian immigration to the city. The project will be an exciting new venture as they work to place diasporic Iranian experiences on a digitized map of Tehranto.
“We are thrilled to receive an Insight Grant that will help us record and analyze the 40-plus years of Iranian immigration to the city. The Toronto Iranian community is the second largest in the world (second only to Los Angeles) and we are honoured to be part of recording the stories of the different and continuous waves of immigration to the city since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. We come from Humanities and Social Sciences backgrounds, making our collaboration truly interdisciplinary," said Naghibi and Moghadam.
SSHRC Insight Development Grants
Craig Jennex - We’re Here to Listen: The Golden Age of LBGTQ2+ Phonlines in Canada, 1972-2004
"The queer past is full of smouldering fragments of unrealized revolutions. As researchers on this project, we’re pulled by the promise of warmth and the potential of reviving the glowing embers of what was and what could have been. This grant will allow TMU researchers to work directly with queer elders who organized and staffed these community phonelines in the 1970s and 1980s, simultaneously bringing these under explored histories to broader audiences and enabling cross-generational knowledge sharing and kinship." - Craig Jennex
Professor of English, Craig Jennex, is a scholar of LGBTQ2+ history, performance, and politics in Canada. His upcoming monograph, Liberation on the Dance Floor, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.
The SSHRC Insight Development Grant will support Jennex’s research into the political impact of volunteer-run lesbian and gay phonelines in Canada during the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, these phonelines were the main channels for communication, information, and peer support within the lesbian and gay community. While over thirty phonelines operated across Canada, this study will concentrate on three key ones: Halifax’s Gay Alliance for Equality’s GayLine, which started in 1972; Toronto’s 923-GAYS, launched by Toronto Area Gays (TAG) in 1976; and Vancouver’s Lesbian Information Line, also beginning in 1976.
Emmanuel Kyeremeh - Are Immigrants Distressed? Exploring African Immigrants’ Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in the Greater Toronto Area and Stakeholder Collaborations
Emmanuel Kyeremeh, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, is a social and urban geographer specializing in migration and ethnic relations. He uses network analysis and other quantitative methods to assess the integration processes of African immigrants in Canada, focusing on food security. His work extends across various community and individual health and wellbeing initiatives.
When reflecting on receiving the grant, Kyeremeh said, “I couldn’t be more pleased to work with excellent colleagues to receive this award. It is an honour and a profound responsibility. I hope to use this award to throw light on food insecurity while advocating for policies that will help address this issue.”
As someone keen on training the next generation of scholars, the grant will assist Kyeremeh in this pursuit. It will enable him to bring on students at different levels and backgrounds to work on addressing some of the challenges that society grapples with. The grant will also assist with creating community partnerships that will provide theoretical and empirical responses to pressing societal issues such as food insecurity.
Lahoma Thomas - Examining the Contours of State Violence in Democracies
Lahoma Thomas is a professor in the Department of Criminology. Her research, grounded in a transnational Black feminist perspective, examines the intersection of political violence, organized crime, non-state governance, and collective political struggle within the Americas. Her scholarly work covers a wide array of topics, including sexual and gender-based violence in violent settings, anti-Black racism, and human rights.
“Receiving this grant highlights the promise of my research and the value of its continued development. This support is incredibly encouraging for me as a junior scholar and is deeply appreciated by my entire research team," said Thomas.
Thomas’ Insight Development Grant supports her initiative by facilitating a highly detailed and broadly interdisciplinary review of the existing literature on state violence in and by democracies. This is essential for establishing the strong knowledge base Thomas needs to develop new methods and methodologies in this area and to further advance inquiry into democratic state violence as a distinct field of study.
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TMU researchers awarded more than $2.7M in SSHRC funding
Bryan Evans offers insights on lobbying amid heightened public interest